I AM currently on a visit to the United States. In my wide ranging discussions with the Pakistani diaspora, two things surfaced unmistakably; the erosion of hope in the future of the country, and a deep aversion to just about anything related to the government. No plausible or cogent reason advanced sits well, and many resort to expletives if tried to be convinced otherwise. The worst part is that most take sadistic pleasure when some tragic event happens in Pakistan.

Most Pakistani-Americans are visibly thrilled at the mere mention of Donald Trump’s re-election as they have pinned their hopes on him to intervene in Paki-stani affairs. The situation was not this bad during my previous visits to the US.

Many are of the opinion that recent attacks by Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the government’s reaction effectively mean that the country has three adversarial neighbouring borders with Afghanistan, India and Iran. Down south, emerging geopolitical developments in the western Indian Ocean mean further amassing of naval forces from within and outside the region once Trump takes office. Is Pakistan endangered by salami slicing?

The term salami slicing, by the way, refers to a military warfare tactic involving domination or capture of an adversary’s territory bit by bit, piece by piece through a series of small, incremental advances. The purpose is to sow confusion in the ranks of the enemy about the timing and intensity of a possible response. The pin-prick tactic allows ducking a full-scale war and the negative fallout in terms of global diplomacy.

The response strategy to such tactics foremost requires a sharp penetrating intelligence; preferably, actionable. Use of kinetic force is the ultimate act, but not via sledgehammer force. Precision strikes with a surgical scalpel are preferred.

While the ongoing heinous crimes by Israel in the Middle East are outrageous, the fact cannot be denied that the military strategy has been effective. Having penetrated deep into the ranks of Hamas, Hezbollah and others through its intell-igence network, Israel went on to conduct decapitating strikes, taking out those in key leadership roles. The infamous pager explosions just showed the reach as well as penetration of Mossad, the Israeli inte- lligence machine.

There was a time when Pakistan’s premier intelligence agency was widely hailed as the catalyst in the process of bringing down the erstwhile Soviet Union, thus ending the Cold War. Various works, like Directorate S: The CIA and America’s Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan by Steve Coll, went on to extol the organi-sation for enlarging its sphere of influence. Yet, despite decades of involvement in Afghanistan, we see today in utter disbelief waves after waves of TTP hordes attacking Pakistan relentlessly.

In the minds of Pakistanis living abroad, especially in the US, this leads to a critical question. Where is the intelligence machinery that was supposed to have mastered every bit of Afghanistan, and the machinations of Indian intelligence?

In essence, they hope that the capacity has not foundered owing to increased involvement in Pakistan’s domestic affairs.

Cdr (retd) Muhammad Azam Khan
Natick, USA

Published in Dawn, January 11th, 2025