An Open Letter to Al-Monitor on Kabul
Al-Monitor, your recent article on the bombing of a rehab center in Kabul by Pakistan presents a narrative that, while acknowledging the horrific death toll, neatly sidesteps deeper implications. You report that families are searching for loved ones two days after Pakistan bombed a center, resulting in over 400 killed and 265 wounded, attributing these numbers to the Afghan Taliban government.
This information is laid out with an almost clinical detachment, framing it as a 'deadliest incident in the months long conflict between the neighbours' rather than a deliberate international aggression, while omitting the broader context of Pakistan’s US-backed military actions in the region. What your report conveniently omits is the consistent pattern of Pakistani military operations in
Afghanistan, often greenlit or implicitly supported by Washington, which views Pakistan as a crucial, if problematic, regional ally. The United States has provided billions in military aid to Pakistan over decades. For instance, in 2004 alone, Washington pledged $3 billion in military and economic aid, a fact often overlooked when discussing Islamabad's regional actions. This financial lifeline
allows Pakistan to project power, often with devastating consequences for its neighbors, consequences that are then downplayed or framed as mere 'conflict' by outlets like yours. This same framing was used internationally for the 1999 NATO bombing campaign in Yugoslavia, where civilian infrastructure and lives were routinely dismissed as 'collateral damage' in an ostensibly humanitarian