Tail between its legs: Ex-Pentagon insider rips into Pak after India's strikes

UPDATED: May 15, 2025 02:12 IST

India decisively outmaneuvered Pakistan both diplomatically and militarily in the wake of last month’s Pahalgam terror attack and the subsequent escalation across the Line of Control, said Michael Rubin, a former Pentagon official and senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

In an interview with ANI, Rubin credited India’s swift and precise military retaliation — dubbed Operation Sindoor — for shifting global focus to Pakistan’s role in cross-border terrorism and undermining Islamabad’s long-standing narrative.

“India won this both diplomatically and militarily,” Rubin said. “The reason why India won diplomatically is that all attention is now on Pakistan's terrorist sponsorship.”

On May 7, India launched precision strikes targeting terrorist infrastructure across Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK), killing more than 100 terrorists. The strikes were launched in response to a deadly terror attack in Pahalgam that left 26 people dead.

What followed was a brief but intense period of Pakistani retaliation that India effectively countered by also striking Pakistani airbases.

Rubin emphasized how the operation exposed the links between Pakistan’s military and terrorist groups. “The fact that Pakistani officers in uniform attended the funeral of terrorists shows there is no differentiation between a terrorist and a member of the ISI or the Pakistani armed forces,” he said. “The world is going to demand that Pakistan extract the rot from its own system.”

Rubin painted a scathing picture of Pakistan’s battlefield performance. “Militarily, Pakistan is shocked... Pakistan has started every single war with India and yet convinced itself that somehow it has won,” he said. “It’s going to be very difficult for Pakistan to convince itself that it won this 4-day war.”

He described Pakistan’s military response as disorganized and ineffective. “Islamabad went running to try to achieve a ceasefire like a scared dog with its tail between its legs,” Rubin told ANI, adding, “There is absolutely no spin that the Pakistani military can put on what occurred... they not only lost, they lost very, very badly.”

Rubin stressed that India’s actions were a justified response to aggression. “This wasn't a conflict which India wanted. This was a conflict that was foisted upon India. Every country has the right to defend its citizens,” he said. “Ultimately, it's the job of India to draw a red line and say no, we will never tolerate terrorist attacks coming across our border.”

Rubin acknowledged that the United States often engages in quiet diplomacy during Indo-Pakistani tensions, especially to prevent escalation.

“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,” he noted.

On US President Donald Trump’s past claims of mediating between India and Pakistan, Rubin said with sarcasm, “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.”

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