by Nilesh Kunwar

Field Marshal Asim Munir must definitely have been overjoyed on receiving an invite for an exclusive lunch with the US President at White House.

And for a man trying his best to live down accusations of plunging Pakistan into humongous crisis by “stealing” the peoples’ mandate through rigging in the 2024 General Elections and being referred to as a “failed marshal,” Donald Trump calling him his “favourite Field Marshal” would have been pure euphoria.

Perhaps that’s why Pakistan’s Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) probably may not have considered it necessary to seriously reflect on former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s seminal observation-cum-warning that while “it may be dangerous to be America’s enemy, but to be America’s friend is fatal.”

So, rather than tread cautiously, the Field Marshal went overboard and even assumed the role of a briefcase-carrying travelling salesman peddling rare earth material.

While what exactly made him Trump’s “favourite” Field Marshal isn’t clear, but there’s no gainsaying the fact that complete and unconditional subservience is what endears people to the US President, and Munir hasn’t disappointed. While Islamabad has condemned the US-Israel savage airstrikes against Iran, it has taken due care to ensure that Washington isn’t named an aggressor.

The next surprising development was Islamabad signing the “Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement” (SMDA) with Saudi Arabia in September 2025, as by doing so Pakistan ended its long held neutrality within the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). Readers would recall that in 2015, Islamabad had declined Saudi Arabia’s request to join its coalition in the Yemen war for this very reason.

Pakistan has traditionally been providing troops for meeting Saudi Arabia’s security requirements and by going in for a SMDA, Islamabad has joined the Saudi camp, a development that Islamabad’s close ally Türkiye would not quite appreciate. Furthermore, since Islamabad has already refused to join the Saudis in the Yemen war, and since Riyadh already has a defence pact with the US it faces no real threat from Israel, and hence SMDA makes no practical sense.

It’s therefore quite possible that the Pakistan-Saudi Arabia SMDA could have been brokered by Washington for indirectly converting a reluctant Pakistan into a US ally for any military contingency in the Middle East.

Mahdi Ghuloom, a Junior Fellow in Geopolitics at Observer Research Foundation notes “That Saudi Arabia chose a mutual US partner for this new security partnership (SMDA) with Pakistan exemplifies the centrality of the US in the Saudi Arabian and Gulf security framework, and his observation lends further credence to this assumption.

Post the US-Israeli airstrikes against Iran and Tehran’s counter-strikes on Gulf countries, the Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chief of Defence Forces Field Marshal Munir rushed to Jeddah. A “restricted meeting” was held with the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS). As the details of what transpired has not been disclosed it's quite likely that the SMDA would have figured in the discussions.

A news report in New York Times has claimed that MBS has been urging President Trump to “continue hitting the Iranians hard.” If true, this revelation suggests that since the Pak-Saudi SMDA stipulates that “any aggression against either country shall be considered an aggression against both,” Riyadh may well demand military action against Iran should Tehran escalate attacks against Saudi Arabia. 

Additionally, since Washington’s expectation that a massive US-Israel air offensive against Iran would not only break Tehran’s will to fight but also facilitate a regime change in the country has backfired, Trump may also be tempted to prod his “favourite" field marshal to act against Iran or at least provide the US covert support for this purpose.

By refusing to intervene and end the “open war” that Pakistan has declared against Afghanistan Trump has abandoned his self proclaimed mission of playing global “peace maker.” Au contraire, by saying “I would (intervene), but you (Pakistanis) have a great prime minister, you have a great General there, you have a great leader…I think Pakistan is doing terrifically well," he has in fact endorsed this unilateral declaration of war by Islamabad.

Such a ‘u-turn’ by a Nobel Peace Prize hopeful raises strong suspicions that Trump may have told his “favourite” Field Marshal to teach Kabul a lesson for turning down his demand for handing over Bagram air base to the US. This may sound ridiculous, but then, hell hath no fury than Trump scorned, and isn’t the abduction of the Venezuelan President and his wife and what’s happening in Iran a manifestation of this?

While Trump is fighting a war in a distant land and can disengage whenever he so desires, his “favourite” field marshal doesn’t have this luxury. So the question that arises is- how could a military man expect that a neighbouring country that became the “graveyard” of several empires could be bombed into submission? When the US –Israeli combine despite pulverising Iran with extremely lethal and advanced munitions has failed to subdue Iran, expecting Kabul to surrender is wishful thinking and just a case of great expectations.

Despite applying brute force including use of drones and armed helicopter gunships, ongoing attacks on the Pakistan army, paramilitaries and law enforcement agencies in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan are showing no signs of receding. The already precarious situation has been further mired by Field Marshal Munir's ill-considered decision to declare war against Afghanistan. In short, he has pushed his country into a hopeless situation from which extrication in the near future would be very difficult.

By carrying out airstrikes across the Durand Line, Rawalpindi has added the Afghan Taliban to its long list of enemies. Field Marshal Munir may blame New Delhi for sponsoring anti-Pakistan armed groups. 

Yet, the fact of the matter is that it’s his own self-debilitating decision of simultaneously waging all-out war against the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, armed Baloch groups and now Afghanistan that is likely to bring these entities together - a reality that Indian political strategist Kautilya (375- 283 BC) had enunciated through his “my enemy’s enemy is my friend” maxim.

Why the field marshal overlooked this incisive observation that has stood the test of time over several thousand years, defies logical explanation. One possibility is that he's faithfully doing what Trump wants done and doesn’t have any choice.

Or it could be the result of his unalterable belief that Muslims are “different from Hindus in every possible aspect of life,” and since he maintains that “our thoughts are different,” perhaps Field Marshal Munir rejected Kautilya’s sagacious opinion only because this was what a Hindu thought!

Nilesh Kunwar is a retired Indian Army Officer who has served in Jammu & Kashmir, Assam, Nagaland and Manipur. He is a keen ‘Kashmir-Watcher,’ and after retirement is pursuing his favourite hobby of writing for newspapers, journals and think-tanks. Views expressed above are the author's own