By Dr. Faiz-ur-Rehman
Many of our friends may think that the United States has failed to overthrow the current government in Iran, but there is another perspective as well. To dismantle any system, a complete mechanism or political roadmap is required. This usually begins with preparing an alternative leadership that can later take control of the system—but this has not been done.In my view, the United States has little real interest in regime change for the benefit of the Iranian people, because people are not the objective—they are merely a means to achieve objectives. In this regard, the American capitalist system is extremely ruthless in pursuing its interests. It does not truly care about human lives. To gain control over a region’s resources, it first spreads destruction and instability through bombardment, eliminates top-level leadership, and then negotiates with second-tier leadership. Over time, this second-tier leadership begins to see itself as powerful and adopts a hardline approach, which creates new problems.
The price of all this is ultimately paid by the poor people of that region. This situation has also made Pakistan’s mediatory role more difficult.If we turn the wheel of history slightly backward, we can clearly see that the same approach was used by the United States in Afghanistan. It eliminated the top-tier leadership of the Taliban, dealt with second-tier leaders, provided them with monthly stipends in the name of aid, handed them weapons, assigned them the role of creating instability in the region, and then left the local population at their mercy.
Although matters between parties will eventually be settled through some form of agreement, what I foresee in this entire process is that weaker nations are heading toward economic and political instability, so they can be kept away from the emerging China-Russia-led new world order. New alliances may also emerge in this process. However, what I cannot foresee is the price that poor Pakistanis will have to pay for the American president’s praise of Pakistani leadership.We were already worried about paying the installments of the eras of General Zia and Musharraf, and now new concerns have begun to surround us. Once, Henry Kissinger said, “It may be dangerous to be America’s enemy, but to be America’s friend is even more dangerous.” Power has its own self-defined rules and regulations, in which concepts like democracy, human rights, and morality are either found in textbooks or in Plato’s ideal state.
