Putin, China and Russia grew much closer, bound by their mutual distrust of America and their desire to promote a multi-polar world. Consequently, on 15 June 2001 Shanghai Five was expanded to include Uzbekistan as a member, changing the orientation of the organization. Shortly thereafter, India, Mongolia, Iran and Turkmenistan expressed interest in the organisation's activities with India and Mongolia even considering membership.’
‘Precisely.’ Rao stepped in smoothly. ‘The obvious fact is that should India and Mongolia join up, more than half the population of Eurasia, from the Baltic to the Pacific, would soon be arrayed in a political, economic and military alliance that could pose a cognizable threat to American hegemony.’
‘And this, as you said earlier, would make the Russia-China-India collaboration a reality,’ the External Affairs Minister chipped in. ‘America would hate to see this happen.’
‘Absolutely correct, sir,’ Rao concurred. ‘To go back to my chronology, things were getting bad enough for the US Administration when there was yet another setback. It came in the form of Hurricane Katrina which swept the Gulf Coast of America. Katrina may have been only the sixth strongest Atlantic hurricane recorded, but it was the deadliest and most expensive one to ever wreak havoc on the American coastline. The death toll hovered in the vicinity of 1800 and the damage to property crossed eighteen billion dollars. To make things worse, the US Administration could not pin any of this on the Al Qaida or any other organization, real or imaginary.
‘In fact, reeling as they were from severe criticism for lying about WMDs in Iraq and the costly military misadventure in Afghanistan, they now came in for a massive mauling. They were still struggling to cope with this when they were hit by another new crisis.’
There was another pause before Rao resumed.
‘Along the Pakistan-Afghan border, a force of approximately two hundred mujahidin fighters caught two American platoons literally with their pants down. By the time the American choppers and relief force arrived on the scene, only three members of these ill-fated platoons were breathing and that too barely. The others had been chopped to pieces with unbelievable savagery.’
Rao's soft monotone did nothing to dispel the feeling of horror that gripped the room. ‘It is also certain that the mujahidin fighters headed straight back towards the Pakistani border immediately after the ambush since the choppers chased them for a better part of the way. They melted away among the tribal inhabitants of that brutally rugged area and that is where the American chase came to an inconclusive end.
‘The body count compelled the US administration to publicly acknowledge that Pakistan was more a part of the problem than the solution. Everyone had, of course, known this right from the beginning; however, it is never politically correct to openly discuss such blemishes in one's friends.
‘The strong US reaction evoked proportionately strong reactions in Pakistan. So vociferous were the protests that the echoes of the blast which decimated seven American tourists, who were dumb enough to want to visit Pakistan in such troubled times, reverberated all the way to the White House. The blasts destroyed several buildings occupied by US diplomats and businesses in Karachi. The message was clearly audible to the Americans, all the way back home – Get out and stay out .’
‘This is all very fascinating, Rao, but do responsible nations really behave like this?’
‘Why not?’ said a politician from the Left. ‘Are you aware that in the last sixty years, since the end of the Second World War, America has used military force more than 220 times? They have actually threatened the security of the world and attacked nations on the pretext that they were feeling threatened, although most of the time it has only been about money… money and, as Rao has pointed out,
‘Precisely.’ Rao stepped in smoothly. ‘The obvious fact is that should India and Mongolia join up, more than half the population of Eurasia, from the Baltic to the Pacific, would soon be arrayed in a political, economic and military alliance that could pose a cognizable threat to American hegemony.’
‘And this, as you said earlier, would make the Russia-China-India collaboration a reality,’ the External Affairs Minister chipped in. ‘America would hate to see this happen.’
‘Absolutely correct, sir,’ Rao concurred. ‘To go back to my chronology, things were getting bad enough for the US Administration when there was yet another setback. It came in the form of Hurricane Katrina which swept the Gulf Coast of America. Katrina may have been only the sixth strongest Atlantic hurricane recorded, but it was the deadliest and most expensive one to ever wreak havoc on the American coastline. The death toll hovered in the vicinity of 1800 and the damage to property crossed eighteen billion dollars. To make things worse, the US Administration could not pin any of this on the Al Qaida or any other organization, real or imaginary.
‘In fact, reeling as they were from severe criticism for lying about WMDs in Iraq and the costly military misadventure in Afghanistan, they now came in for a massive mauling. They were still struggling to cope with this when they were hit by another new crisis.’
There was another pause before Rao resumed.
‘Along the Pakistan-Afghan border, a force of approximately two hundred mujahidin fighters caught two American platoons literally with their pants down. By the time the American choppers and relief force arrived on the scene, only three members of these ill-fated platoons were breathing and that too barely. The others had been chopped to pieces with unbelievable savagery.’
Rao's soft monotone did nothing to dispel the feeling of horror that gripped the room. ‘It is also certain that the mujahidin fighters headed straight back towards the Pakistani border immediately after the ambush since the choppers chased them for a better part of the way. They melted away among the tribal inhabitants of that brutally rugged area and that is where the American chase came to an inconclusive end.
‘The body count compelled the US administration to publicly acknowledge that Pakistan was more a part of the problem than the solution. Everyone had, of course, known this right from the beginning; however, it is never politically correct to openly discuss such blemishes in one's friends.
‘The strong US reaction evoked proportionately strong reactions in Pakistan. So vociferous were the protests that the echoes of the blast which decimated seven American tourists, who were dumb enough to want to visit Pakistan in such troubled times, reverberated all the way to the White House. The blasts destroyed several buildings occupied by US diplomats and businesses in Karachi. The message was clearly audible to the Americans, all the way back home – Get out and stay out .’
‘This is all very fascinating, Rao, but do responsible nations really behave like this?’
‘Why not?’ said a politician from the Left. ‘Are you aware that in the last sixty years, since the end of the Second World War, America has used military force more than 220 times? They have actually threatened the security of the world and attacked nations on the pretext that they were feeling threatened, although most of the time it has only been about money… money and, as Rao has pointed out,
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