SOON after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, George Bush Sr, the then president of the United States, was asked about the future of Nato in the wake of the diminished threat of communism. He had replied: “Threat has changed from red to green”. And the ‘green’ clearly referred to the Muslim world.

The words made it obvious that the US and Nato would have better relationship with Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union before going after the ‘green’ threat by intervening in the Muslim states. In due course, we saw ‘shock and awe’ in the shape of Gulf wars and the so-called ‘war on terror’.

The US, in the meanwhile, kept expanding Nato eastwards, while Russia was drugged with Bonn Accord and promises. Once Russia began to re-emerge as a great power under Vladimir Putin, who was desperate to reclaim the lost glory of the land, the US and Nato neutralised Iraq, Libya, Egypt and Syria that together represented a potential threat to Israel.

All this, as planned, made Israel the ‘policeman’ in the Middle East, and all other Arab states, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), had to accept a relationship, covert or otherwise, with Israel.

Looking at the happenings in Ukraine and the reaction of the US and Nato on the Russian military action, it looks like the US and Nato are now once again re-shifting their perception of threat from ‘green’ to ‘red’.

M. Hassan Quraishi
Karachi

Published in Dawn, March 12th, 2022