Michael Hughes: Ex-Afghan spy chief and former VP, Amrullah Saleh, has applauded Pakistan’s military chief for refusing to conceal how Rawalpindi really feels about Afghanistan. Earlier this week, Army Chief Gen. Asim Munir bluntly said when it comes to Pakistan’s security, “the whole of Afghanistan can be damned.”
“The only aspect of surprise is the way this statement has been conveyed so loud and clear to the public. Gen. Asim Munir’s clarity, however bitter, makes things easier not harder,” Saleh said in a post on X on January 26. “The trouble was always in the sweetness of their diplomatic words and the poisonous actions of their deep state. I hope that the deceptive behavior and the destructive duality is no longer easy to conceal… Avoiding a bite by a snake out in the open is far easier than the one hiding in the cupboard.”