Regime-Change Business of the United States

The US intelligence agencies have a great specialization in the regime-change business since the inception of the cold war in the late 20th century. History is full of such examples where the United States overthrows elected governments through its regime-change strategy. This is a classic methodology of the US that in the first step, it creates a crisis in fragile democracies and then gathers the general public on the streets against their own governments thereafter legitimizing the military coups and fake political campaigns of the opposition parties through various techniques.

It is very important to have a clear understanding of the United States’s regime-change business in its entirety. In this business, the US uses either the military establishment or the opposition parties to overthrow the elected governments in order to have its interests meet and make its potential allies further stronger so that it’s so-called dominance in international politics will remain unquestionable. Bringing the general public on the streets against the ruling parties is considered to be one of the main strategies of the United States to overthrow governments whose foreign policies don’t favor the United States’s interests.

Back in 1977, the Prime minister-elect Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s regime was replaced by a military dictatorship through PNA’s mass protests resulting a chaos in the country’s main urban centers such as Lahore and Rawalpindi. Consequently, paving the way for General Zia to intervene and enforce Martial law all over Pakistan.

This awful business is not just confined to Pakistan, but rather extends to the entire world. For instance, during the last twenty years, there are a few interesting examples where the US has used this strategy in order to have governments of its own choice. For example, in November 2003, the Rose revolution was brought in Georgia, a hype was created and widespread protests were held to overthrow President Eduard Shevardnadze’s government. Resultantly, a pro-American government was brought into power. Secondly, the Orange Revolution was brought in Ukraine in 2004, against a pro-Russian government. Eventually, a pro-American government got installed.

In addition to this, the Arab Spring was brought in 2011-12 and we saw how various governments were overthrown. Thereafter, in February 2014, a pro-Russian government in Ukraine led by President Viktor Yanukovych was overthrown from power through a well-planned movement known as the Euromaidan movement in which nationwide protests were organized against President Viktor’s decision of not to sign a wide-ranging association agreement with the European Union. This, ultimately, led to the fall of President Viktor’s regime, thus a pro-American government was installed in Ukraine, the fall-out of which can be seen on the television and mobile screens right now as how the Ukrainians are paying the price in the form of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Such an environment is also being created in Pakistan right now. This time, unlikely it’s not the military but the London-based ex-premier Nawaz Sharif who is being used by the US as a major character to overthrow the PTI-led elected government. Since, he has given the green signal to the Pakistan Democratic Movement, PDM which includes the major opposition parties. The pattern here in Pakistan is parallel to the Rose Revolution or the Orange Revolution or even the Euromaidan movement. Since PTI’s coming into power back in 2018, the US has tried to influence Pakistan through various International organizations like the IMF, FATF, etc.

Here, raises an important question, why the US wants to overthrow the PTI-led elected government? There are a couple of reasons why the US has some serious resentments with the PTI-led elected government. First of all, the US doesn’t want a civil-military alliance in Pakistan which the country has witnessed for the first time since the judiciary movement of 2007. Both the successive governments of  PPP and PML-N have had a clash with the military establishment from 2008 onwards. The US has always benefitted from the civil-military divide in Pakistan.

Secondly, the PM Khan’s absolutely-not policy on the American demand for providing the space for drone surveillance and intel operations on Afghanistan was another reason that added to the American anger.

Thirdly, when the US held a virtual Democracy Summit last year in January 2021, to which Pakistan was also invited. Prime Minister Imran Khan didn’t accept this US invitation and decided not to attend this so-called US Democracy Summit, due to the fact that this summit was solely held against the Peoples Republic of China.

Moreover, the Beijing Winter Olympics 2022 was boycotted by the US and its allies including EU countries, however, Pakistan did the opposite, and PM Imran Khan himself attended the opening ceremony, in addition to this, amidst the Russian Invasion of Ukraine, PM Khan’s visit to Moscow has further intensified the Pak-US relations. Likewise, this week on March 1st, 2022, twenty-two members of the United Nations including the US and its allies have, in a written letter, urged Pakistan to vote against the Russian invasion of Ukraine which Pakistan has refused and decided to stay neutral. This too has, in a sense, insulted the US and its allies. 

It seems clear that there are international agendas behind the opposition’s so-called long marches.

Will the United States be able to achieve its goal of overthrowing Premier Khan’s regime through the long marches and a vote of no-confidence? It will be idiotic to give a preposterous analysis of whether the no-confidence motion will succeed or not, since both, the opposition and the ruling party, claim to have the correct numbers. Thus, only time will tell us about the country’s future.