Han Dongping

Say no to NATO use of the Wahan Corridor

By Han Dongping (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-01-15 16:39

As US and its allies stepped up its military operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan, they also began to realize that the task they are faced with there is almost impossible to complete. I argued in a different article that there was no way the US and its allies would be able to win in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The reason is very simple. The people in Pakistan and Afghanistan are too tough for the US and its allies to conquer.

First, Taliban forces and other anti-American elements in Pakistan and Afghanistan are at home in the harsh natural environment of the remote mountainous regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan. But American soldiers and its allies, who are more used to modern comfortable conditions at home, are out of their element in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Second, The Taliban and other anti-US forces in Pakistan and Afghanistan can sustain its resistance at a relatively low cost with their simple weapons and technology. The cost of Americans’ high tech warfare, on the other hand, is much higher. The American government estimates the cost of maintaining one soldier in Afghanistan for one year to be one million dollars. As the US federal and state governments struggle with budget shortfalls amid the ongoing financial crisis, it is clear that it will be hard for the US and its allies to sustain its military operations in Pakistan and Afghanistan for very long.

As American government begins to see its precarious situation in Pakistan and Afghanistan, they have tried to drag China into its mess in Afghanistan and Pakistan by asking China to allow them to use the Wahan corridor for its military operations. I hope that Chinese government can detect American intentions in this strategy, and that it is wise enough to deny America’s request to use the Wahan corridor.

Afghanistan and Pakistan are both Chinese neighbors, and they are strategically important for China’s national security. China should never support outside forces to mess with its neighbors’ internal affairs, particularly when it is almost certain that the outside forces will be defeated in the end. The US forces and its allies will have to leave Afghanistan and Pakistan sooner or later, but the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan will always be there. China should not alienate them hotheadedly.

More importantly, the US military operations in Pakistan and Afghanistan have multiple objectives. One of its undisclosed objectives is to threaten the security of China’s western borders, to disrupt one of China’s most important strategic allies, Pakistan, and to enable India, China’s traditional rival, to strengthen its military and political positions in the subcontinent of South Asia. China has no reason to help US and its allies to undermine China’s strategic interests in that area.

The US, as the only superpower in the world, has several hundred bases throughout the world. According to the United Nations’ calculation, the US has fought more wars than any other country in the world since the end of WWII, and it also supported one of its most important allies in fighting the second most wars since WWII.

As a result, the US and CIA activities in the world have become the biggest threat to world peace and the survival of the planet earth. The US military leaders at one time threatened to bomb Pakistan back to the Stone Age, a threat it has also used against China in the past. I teach environmental politics, so I know the environmental impact caused by war and military spending. I sincerely believe that American military spending and military operations around the world are actually hurting the fundamental interests of the American people as well as the people who are directly affected by the US military operations.

American people always support their own troops. In that mindset, it is very hard for American people to see that they are actually the victims of their government’s own military operations in the world. They can not see that the best way to support one’s troops is to keep them out of the harmful way. American people need to ask themselves some very profound questions. Why does the US need military bases in so many countries outside their own territory? What do American people gain from such an extensive military presence in the world? Why American service men have to make the ultimate sacrifice in so many wars, in Korea, in Vietnam, in Iraq, and now in Pakistan and Afghanistan?

It would be very hard for American people to realize the stupidity of stationing troops abroad. Therefore, the world can not expect the US to withdraw its military forces back to the US voluntarily. The only option left for the world is to drive some good sense into the heads of American leaders by forcing the US to withdraw from its overseas military establishments and operations.

For the sake of world peace, protecting our environment, and its own self-interests, China should refrain from allowing the US and its allies to use the Wahan corridor for its military operations and other resistance forces in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Dongping Han is Professor of History and Political Science at Warren Wilson College, NC.

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