Pakistan’s Buy-in on the Iran War Isn’t Worth the Price
President Donald Trump today invited “Field Marshall” Asim Munir, Pakistan’s army chief, for a private lunch. Allegedly on their agenda: Convincing Pakistan to assist the United States and by extension Israel in the war to end the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program if not the Iranian regime itself.
Allegedly on their agenda: Convincing Pakistan to assist the United States and by extension Israel in the war to end the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program if not the Iranian regime itself.
The genesis for the idea to create a U.S.-Pakistan alliance against Iran is unclear. Perhaps it was Munir himself. On April 22, 2025, Pakistan-based terrorists infiltrated into Indian Kashmir, separated Hindu men from their families and then executed them when they could not recite specific Quranic verses.
In the aftermath, India launched devastating attacks into Pakistan and destroyed several Pakistan airfields. If Munir initiated the outreach, he merely follows the strategy of the Islamic Republic of Iran itself. In 1996, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-backed terrorists attacked a U.S. Air Force barracks in Khobar, Saudi Arabia. An FBI report proved beyond doubt that Tehran was responsible.
Before President Bill Clinton could consider a military response, Iranian President Mohammad Khatami proposed a “dialogue of civilizations.” It never went anywhere, but that was not the regime’s intention. Rather, it derailed any momentum to retaliation and to hold Iranian authorities accountable for their actions.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, a Trump friend and confidant, may also be whispering into Trump’s ear, urging him to embrace Munir. If so, Erdoğan plays Trump for a fool. Turkey and Pakistan have formed an Islamist alliance of mutual support for both Kashmir-focused terrorists and groups like Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Meanwhile, the two countries continue to cooperate on bolstering their own domestic military industries. If Erdoğan can get Pakistan a free pass, it will be a diplomatic triumph that can buy both Ankara and Islamabad time as they form a new Axis of Evil to supplant Iran.
The Pakistanis starved most Afghan oppositionists of any support and exclusively funded the so-called “Peshawar Seven,” a group of Islamist Mujahedin.
If Trump generated the idea on his own, he misunderstands history. In 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. The United States sought to respond and, during the Reagan administration, actively helped the Afghan resistance. What many forget is at the time of the Soviet invasion, most Afghans were relatively secular and moving toward the West. Pakistan saw this as an ideological threat, though. They welcomed Saudi money and American weaponry on one condition: They alone distribute it. They starved most Afghan oppositionists of any support and exclusively funded the so-called “Peshawar Seven,” a group of Islamist Mujahedin.
Many critics of American foreign policy mistakenly say the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) created the Taliban. This is anachronistic. The CIA has had some bizarre ideas over the decades, but training kindergarteners is not among them, for when the Soviets invaded, those that became the Taliban were only four or five years old. In reality, it was Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency that co-opted the Taliban in the hope that an Islamist movement would not threaten Pakistan the way a nationalist Afghanistan might.
Pakistani support always comes at a price. The United States has repeatedly sanctioned Pakistan for its nuclear activities and malign behavior. In 1976, it was the Symington Amendment that prohibited most military sales to Pakistan due to its clandestine nuclear program. Reagan waived the penalties to gain Pakistan buy-in for arming the Mujahedin, something that was in Pakistan’s own interests.
Trump should send Munir packing and let him understand if Pakistan continues to follow Iran’s path, he could ultimately face the same fate as Khamenei.
In 1985, Senator Larry Pressler passed an amendment that prohibited weapons sales to Pakistan unless the United States could certify Pakistan was not building a nuclear bomb. Again, the need for Pakistan cooperation led to its waiver. Nearly a decade later, Senator John Glenn introduced an amendment to sanction non-nuclear-weapon states that detonate a nuclear explosive device, something Pakistan did in 1998. Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, George W. Bush waived sanctions to get Pakistani cooperation against the Taliban.
Through it all, Pakistan was two-faced: It accepted billions of dollars in American aid, won de facto immunity for its own terror sponsorship, and collaborated with Taliban proxies to murder hundreds of Americans and hosted Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Albert Einstein supposedly defined insanity as doing the same action repeatedly but expecting different results each time. Trusting Pakistan is madness, as is giving it a free pass for its terror sponsorship. The United States has the assets to defeat Iran without immunizing Pakistan for its actions. Trump should send Munir packing and let him understand if Pakistan continues to follow Iran’s path, he could ultimately face the same fate as Khamenei.
Published originally on June 18, 2025.
