Washington DC, May 15
Michael Rubin, a former Pentagon official and senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, took a jibe at US President Donald Trump's tendency to claim credit for almost every achievement, saying that Trump might as well have "invented the Internet" and "cured cancer."
His remarks came in response to Trump's statements on the India-Pakistan cessation of hostilities, where Rubin pointed out that Indians should not take the US President's claims literally.
In an interview with ANI, Rubin said, "Donald Trump likes to claim credit for everything. If you ask Donald Trump, he single-handedly won the World Cup. He invented the Internet. He cured cancer. Indians should be more like Americans in this regard and not take Donald Trump literally"
Rubin also addressed the role of the United States in the India-Pakistan conflict, emphasising that Washington's diplomatic efforts are crucial to preventing escalation, especially given the potential for nuclear exchange between the two nations.
He also said, "Whenever Pakistan and India come into conflict, the United States tries to mediate behind the scenes, and this is reasonable because the United States is trying diplomatically to provide an off-ramp to prevent unrestricted warfare and also, in a worst case scenario, prevent an escalation to any sort of nuclear exchange. So, the fact that the United States would be in touch with both New Delhi and Islamabad is obvious, and the fact that both New Delhi and Islamabad would use Washington to pass messages is also obvious."
Trump on Monday had said that his administration played a crucial role in brokering an immediate cessation of hostilities between India and Pakistan, following escalating tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
"We stopped a nuclear conflict. I think it could have been a bad nuclear war. Millions of people could have been killed. I also want to thank VP JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio for their work. On Saturday, my administration helped broker an immediate cessation of hostilities, I think a permanent one between India and Pakistan the countries having a lot of nuclear weapons," Trump had told the media.
"I'm very proud to let you know that the leadership of India and Pakistan was unwavering and powerful... And we helped a lot, and we also helped with trade. I said, 'Come on, we're going to do a lot of trade with you guys. Let's stop it, let's stop it. If you stop it, we're doing trade. If you don't stop it, we're not going to do any trade," he added.
India launched Operation Sindoor in response to last month's Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 people were killed. India's precision strikes in Pakistan and PoJK on May 7 killed over 100 terrorists.
India responded effectively to the subsequent Pakistani aggression and also pounded its airbases.
- ANI