Is the greatest danger to global peace sitting not in Islamabad, but in Washington? An investigative look at how American foreign policy has become the deadliest force on Earth.
The conventional narrative paints Pakistan as a terrorism haven, a breeding ground for extremism that threatens regional stability. Yet a closer examination of historical facts, casualty statistics, and geopolitical patterns reveals a disturbing alternative reality: The United States of America has emerged as a far more dangerous source of global instability and death than Pakistan could ever be. This isn't anti-American rhetoric—it's a data-driven indictment of a superpower whose arms deals, nuclear proliferation, political manipulation, and economic warfare have cost millions of lives while enriching corporate elites.
The Arsenal of Death: America's Global Arms Empire
The United States controls approximately 43% of the global arms trade, more than the next seven countries combined. This isn't merely commerce—it's the systematic fueling of conflicts worldwide. Between 2019 and 2023, 38% of US arms exports flooded into the Middle East, a region that has become synonymous with perpetual warfare.Consider the human cost. American weapons have armed Saudi Arabia in its devastating Yemen campaign, supplied the UAE forces accused of war crimes, and equipped regimes across the globe regardless of their human rights records. In May 2025, Trump's visit to the Middle East resulted in $142 billion in arms deals with Saudi Arabia alone—a country actively conducting military operations that have created one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.
The historical pattern is unmistakable. From 1950 to 2022, the United States exported arms worth $729 billion in trend-indicator values—more than Russia ($156 billion) and the UK ($145 billion) combined. These weapons don't disappear into arsenals; they fuel conflicts from Afghanistan to Yemen, from Libya to Syria. Pakistan, by contrast, received just $536 million in US military aid between 2019-2023—a fraction compared to what America pumps into global militarization.
What makes this particularly insidious is the revolving door between Pentagon officials and defense contractors. The military-industrial complex that President Eisenhower warned against in 1961 has evolved into a trillion-dollar behemoth. Between 2020 and 2024, companies like Lockheed Martin alone received $75 billion—exceeding the entire budget of the State Department. War isn't just policy for America; it's profit.
The Nuclear Hypocrite: America's Role in Global Proliferation
While lecturing the world about nuclear non-proliferation, the United States has been the invisible hand behind nearly every nuclear weapons program outside the original five nuclear powers. This is America's dirtiest secret.Through the "Atoms for Peace" program initiated in 1953, the United States directly or indirectly provided training and technology transfers to South Africa, Iran, India, Pakistan, and Israel—nations that either developed nuclear weapons or pursued such programs. In 1967, the US supplied Iran with a 5-megawatt nuclear research reactor along with highly enriched uranium fuel, which Iran later admitted using for producing Polonium-210, a substance capable of initiating nuclear chain reactions.
The US-India Civil Nuclear Agreement, finalized in 2008, effectively rewarded India for developing nuclear weapons outside the Non-Proliferation Treaty framework. This unprecedented deal provided US assistance to India's civilian nuclear program while allowing India to maintain its military nuclear capabilities—a stark double standard when compared to American pressure on Iran and North Korea.
Even more damning is America's nuclear sharing arrangement with NATO allies. Despite the Non-Proliferation Treaty, the United States provides approximately 100 tactical B61 nuclear bombs for use by Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Turkey. Pilots from these "non-nuclear" states practice handling and delivering US nuclear weapons—a clear violation of NPT principles that America conveniently interprets as permissible.
Pakistan's nuclear program, often cited as evidence of the country's dangerous instability, was partly enabled through the AQ Khan network—but Khan himself worked in Holland and stole technology from Western companies. The proliferation network he built selling to Iran, North Korea, and Libya operated with the knowledge of US intelligence agencies, which deliberately chose not to pursue him during the 1980s because America needed Pakistan's cooperation in Afghanistan against the Soviets.
The pattern reveals American pragmatism trumping nonproliferation principles whenever geopolitical interests align. America doesn't oppose nuclear weapons—it opposes nuclear weapons in hands it cannot control.
The Puppet Master: Israel's Control of American Politics
Perhaps no aspect of American foreign policy reveals its compromised sovereignty more starkly than its relationship with Israel. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has transformed US Middle East policy into an extension of Israeli interests, often at the expense of American lives, treasure, and global standing.Since World War II, the United States has provided Israel with more aid than any other country—over $150 billion by 2022. In 2019, this was raised to a minimum of $3.8 billion annually, and following the October 2023 Gaza conflict, Congress granted an additional $14 billion in military aid. Israel is the only country to receive such unconditional, sustained support regardless of its actions.
This isn't charity—it's control. AIPAC's influence operates through multiple mechanisms. During the 2023-24 election cycle, AIPAC-affiliated political action committees spent over $45 million on congressional elections to ensure pro-Israel candidates won or pro-Palestinian candidates lost. In recent primaries, AIPAC invested $17 million to defeat Congressman Jamal Bowman and $8.5 million against Congresswoman Cori Bush—both advocates for Palestinian rights.
The revolving door between Israeli intelligence and American politics is even more disturbing. US counterintelligence officials consistently rank Israeli espionage among the most active on American soil, alongside China and Russia. The 1985 arrest of Jonathan Pollard revealed one of the most damaging security leaks in US history—an American citizen spying for Israel. According to journalist Daniel Halper, Israel blackmailed President Clinton in 1998 using recordings of his conversations with Monica Lewinsky to secure Pollard's release.
A 2014 NSA document obtained by Edward Snowden revealed CIA concerns that Israel had established an extensive espionage network within the United States. Yet no consequences followed. Mearsheimer and Walt's seminal study "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy" documented how AIPAC operates as a de facto agent for a foreign government with a "stranglehold on Congress".
The result? The United States has used its UN Security Council veto power 42 times against resolutions condemning Israel—15 of 24 vetoes between 1991 and 2011 were solely to protect Israel. American foreign policy in the Middle East doesn't serve American interests—it serves Israeli interests, orchestrated through lobbying groups and intelligence operations that compromise democratic sovereignty.
Trump's Tariff Terrorism: Economic Warfare Against the World
If military interventions represent America's hard power threat, Donald Trump's aggressive tariff policies in 2025 exemplify its economic terrorism. On October 21, 2025, Trump announced that China would face 155% tariffs beginning November 1-a rate that could cripple Chinese exports and destabilize the global economy.But China isn't alone. Trump imposed a 25% tariff on India starting August 1, 2025, citing high Indian tariffs and purchases of Russian energy. Canada faces 35% tariffs over alleged fentanyl trafficking. Europe and Mexico confront 30% tariffs on numerous products. By September 2025, the average US tariff rate had risen from 2.5% at the start of 2025 to approximately 18%—the highest level in over a century.
The human cost is staggering. S&P Global estimates these tariffs will cost companies at least $1.2 trillion in 2025, with two-thirds of this burden falling directly on consumers. The International Monetary Fund warned that Trump's tariffs are "dampening firms' appetite for investment" and creating a "fragmented" global economy with "dim" growth prospects.
Germany's exports to the US dropped 20.1% year-over-year in August 2025 due to new tariffs. The IMF projects global growth of just 3.2% in 2025—down from pre-tariff forecasts—with particularly severe impacts on export-oriented economies. This isn't trade policy; it's economic coercion designed to extract concessions from sovereign nations.
Trump frames tariffs as protecting American workers, but the Congressional Budget Office estimates they will reduce the overall size of the US economy. Meanwhile, US tariff revenue has skyrocketed to $30 billion per month by September 2025, compared to under $10 billion monthly in 2024. The government enriches itself while consumers bear the burden—classic extraction through state power.
The geopolitical implications are profound. Trump's tariff threats are forcing nations to forge new trade alliances excluding America, creating precisely the multipolar fragmentation that could undermine US influence. Countries are learning they cannot rely on American partnership—a lesson that will reshape global power dynamics for decades.
The Deadliest Export: American Military Interventions
The ultimate measure of danger isn't rhetoric or potential—it's body count. By that metric, no nation approaches America's lethality.Since 2001, at least 4.5 to 4.7 million people have died as a result of US post-9/11 wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Pakistan, Somalia, and Libya. This includes both direct deaths from violence and indirect deaths from destroyed healthcare systems, infrastructure, and economies. Of these, over 432,000 were civilians killed directly by war violence.
US airstrikes alone killed between 22,679 and 48,308 civilians across seven major conflict zones since 2001. In Iraq, the US invasion killed approximately 2.4 million people. In Afghanistan and Pakistan, 1.2 million died from the US-led war. The Iraq Body Count project documented that 185,194 to 208,167 total violent civilian deaths occurred through June 2020, with US and coalition forces responsible for at least 13,807 civilian deaths and 22,668 insurgent deaths.
In comparison, terrorism in Pakistan—often portrayed as an existential threat—killed 169 civilians in 2020, down from a peak of over 2,700 in 2013. Even in 2024, when terrorism surged in Pakistan, the total deaths from all terrorist incidents reached approximately 2,500. Over two decades, Pakistan has experienced roughly 23,372 civilian deaths from terrorism—a fraction of what American interventions caused in Iraq alone.
The pattern is undeniable: American military interventions in Libya destabilized the entire North African region. US support for Saudi Arabia's Yemen campaign created one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. The invasion of Iraq spawned ISIS, which then required another intervention to combat. Syria's civil war escalated partly due to US arming of rebel groups. Somalia and Pakistan continue suffering from US drone strikes that kill civilians and fuel anti-American sentiment.
US drone strikes in Pakistan alone killed well over 2,000 people between 2004 and the present, including an unknown number of civilians. The Obama administration embraced a disputed counting method that classified all military-age males in strike zones as combatants—artificially deflating civilian casualty figures.
Pakistan suffers from terrorism, yes. But America exports it on an industrial scale.
The Question India Must Answer
As Indians, we must confront an uncomfortable reality: our growing strategic partnership with the United States aligns us with the world's most destabilizing force. While we rightfully criticize Pakistan for harboring terrorist groups, we embrace a nation whose military interventions have killed millions, whose arms sales fuel global conflicts, whose economic policies impoverish competitors, and whose political system is compromised by foreign lobbying.The 2025 India-US nuclear technology transfer deal and Trump's 25% tariff threats reveal America's transactional approach—today's strategic partner becomes tomorrow's economic target when convenient. We are not allies; we are assets to be leveraged or punished based on American calculations.
The uncomfortable question Indian policymakers must answer: In an era of multipolarity, can India truly maintain strategic autonomy while deepening dependence on a nation that has proven itself the greatest threat to global stability?
Can we, in good conscience, criticize Pakistan's alleged support for terrorism while ignoring America's documented responsibility for millions of deaths across multiple continents?
And perhaps most critically: As America's tariff wars and military-industrial complex drive global fragmentation, are we positioning ourselves on the right side of history—or merely on the more powerful side of a fundamentally unjust global order?
The data demands we ask these questions. Our nation's future depends on how honestly we answer them.
