Twitter battle between the United States President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Pakistan Imran Khan has begun, as expected. Trump said in a Tweet that Pakistan was just one of many countries that take from United States and do nothing. While Khan responded fiercely by talking about more than 70,000 precious lives that Pakistan had lost in American war against Taliban in Afghanistan. Amidst, all this came the Pentagon’s response that Pakistan was United States critical partner in South Asia strategy and there still existed military to military relationship between both countries.
Pentagon on Pak-US Relations
Pentagon responded after Trump had defended his administration’s cutting of aid to Pakistan in an interview with Fox. According to NDTV Pentagon’s Director of Defense Press Operations, Col Rob Manning told in an off-camera interview to reporters that Pakistan was vital to the United States’ South Asia strategy and facilitating peace process in Afghanistan.
Answering a question about Pak-US relations with respect to Trump’s tweets and his interview to Fox news channel, Manning said, “There’s been no change in our military to military relations with Pakistan.”
Exchange of Tweets between Imran Khan and Trump
Many liberal factions in Pakistan were already equating Trump with Khan. Even political commentator and comedian Trevor Noah had also labeled Imran Khan as Pakistan’s Trump. Folks were also expecting diplomatic talk between Trump and Khan through Tweets exchange and when it happened, they were just like yes it has begun as they predicted it.
https://twitter.com/MadihaAfzal/status/1064546444328226817
Trump Vs. Khan Tweets Exchange
It all began with Trump lamenting the loss of billions of dollars that it paid to Pakistan for fighting its war.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1064540462848098304
A tweet that simply ignored sacrifices that Pakistan made for war against terrorism.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1064544156960387072
Imran Khan Hits Back at Trump
Imran Khan came up with a robust response to rebuke Trump’s senseless claims that Pakistan did nothing for the United States. Khan expectedly used the Twitter to give the President of United States a fact check.
He also reminded Trump how United States got defeated at the hands of Taliban despite more than a decade long war. In his tweet he states that United States should stop making Pakistan a scapegoat for their failures.
Instead of making Pakistan a scapegoat for their failures, the US should do a serious assessment of why, despite 140000 NATO troops plus 250,000 Afghan troops & reportedly $1 trillion spent on war in Afghanistan, the Taliban today are stronger than before.
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) November 19, 2018
He further presented historic facts about sacrifices that Pakistan had made in the form of loss of precious lives, becoming a victim of terrorism and bearing a financial loss due to resulting economic instability.
3. Our tribal areas were devastated & millions of ppl uprooted from their homes. The war drastically impacted lives of ordinary Pakistanis. 4. Pak continues to provide free lines of ground & air communications(GLOCs/ALOCs).Can Mr Trump name another ally that gave such sacrifices?
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) November 19, 2018
Well, the response of Pentagon now reveals that Trump statement about Pakistan’s role in war against terrorism doesn’t mean that there is now an end to military to military relations between both the countries.
A Question on Using Twitter for Diplomatic Communication
It has become hard for governments, institutions and celebrities to prevent the use of social media platforms like Twitter for the purpose of giving opinions and defending their stances. Still, various think tanks and officials are raising questions if Twitter should be used for diplomatic communications or not. Martin Kobler, German Ambassador to Pakistan, also raised the same concerns over Trump-Khan tweets exchange.
I followed the exchange of tweets between @ImranKhanPTI and @realDonaldTrump. What do you think about the role of social media in diplomacy? Should Twitter be used for this? pic.twitter.com/Xo8W00XLxi
— Bernhard Schlagheck (@GermanyinPAK) November 20, 2018
