'Fighting monsters, ignoring decay within': Pakistani generals' dichotomy

New Delhi, Nov 7 (IANS) In early October, Pakistan launched airstrikes inside Afghanistan -- targeting Kabul, Kandahar, and Paktika -- claiming to hit Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants.

Instead, civilians, including women, children, and young cricketers, were killed. Kabul retaliated, killing 58 Pakistani soldiers.

For the first time, Afghanistan was bombed not by a superpower, but by its neighbour, once a haven for its refugees.

According to a report by The Diplomat, the strikes, meant to project power, instead exposed Pakistan’s fragility.

Rawalpindi’s generals are repeating an old playbook: using external aggression to mask internal decay, the report said.

For decades, Pakistan has blamed instability on others -- India, Kabul, or the West -- while nurturing militant proxies that now threaten its own survival.

“The TTP, once considered a strategic asset, has turned into an existential menace,” the report said.

The recent air campaign is not a show of confidence but of desperation. With the economy on the brink, inflation crushing citizens, and civilian authority hollowed out, Pakistan’s military is exporting conflict to distract from domestic chaos, the report added.

Meanwhile, the Taliban, once Islamabad’s pawn, now assert sovereignty. “Afghanistan will not fight someone else’s war,” said Afghan Defence Minister Mullah Yaqoob, just days after the attack.

This independence unnerves Pakistan’s generals. Efforts at de-escalation -- such as the ongoing third round of negotiations in Istanbul mediated by Turkiye and Qatar -- remain fragile, as Islamabad continues to speak in ultimatums, not diplomacy.

Also, no external power seems willing to back Pakistan’s brinkmanship; even Beijing and Tehran have urged restraint, fearing instability that could spill across borders.

Washington, long weary of Pakistan’s duplicity, is staying out.

The lesson is one history keeps repeating. Pakistan’s coercive diplomacy and militarised reflexes only deepen domestic fractures.

Every confrontation with Afghanistan ends the same way -- Afghanistan endures, Pakistan weakens.

Pakistan’s generals are trapped in their own contradictions: fighting the monsters they once created while ignoring the decay within.

--IANS

sas/dan