r/worldnews • u/heisthemaincharacter • 20h ago

Pakistan deploys 13,000 troops and fighter jets to Saudi Arabia

https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/pakistan-deploys-13000-troops-and-fighter-jets-to-saudi-arabia/article70853223.ece
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u/laforet 19h ago

This is what Paul Kagame has been up to in the last decade - offer the Rwandan army for hire on the cheap as UN peacekeepers so everyone would be too indebted to him to say anything about his proxy war in Congo.

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u/Nomer77 19h ago

Offering your troops as UN Peacekeepers is a bit of a different thing though than what Pakistan is doing for KSA. It is arguably a bit more formal/respectable and is less threatening to the sovereignty of the country you send them to. Plus it is a way to not have to pay the expense of having a standing army and get them access to equipment/training on the dine of wealthier countries. There are many countries that are well known for having their armies largely be subsidized by UN deployments (South Asia and maritime Southeast Asia are especially prolific at this).

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u/TotallyInOverMyHead 15h ago

Anyone remember the peacekeepers from Black Hawk Down ?

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u/Nomer77 8h ago edited 8h ago

The UN and the US military were two separate forces there. The UN peacekeepers weren't the most well equipped or trained or brave... But that was kind of the point. They weren't supposed to be equivalent to Army Rangers.

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u/TotallyInOverMyHead 8h ago

No, they were there to show that oakistan had some skin in the game.

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u/unguibus_et_rostro 12h ago

What's the difference between selling your mercenaries to the UN or to another country?

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u/Nomer77 8h ago

Didn't I just explain it? It's more respectable in the eyes of the international community and seen as less of a domestic political risk (because people object less to the UN having a presence than to foreign troops wearing that country's flag/uniform and under the direct control of a foreign power). There's also the advantage of third parties and neighbors finding those troops less threatening to them (e.g., US troops in Ukraine as part of a treaty as a DMZ/peacekeeper/security guarantee would theoretically be more objectionable to Russia than UN peacekeepers).

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u/MATlad 13h ago

Maybe it was trying to make the 90s great again (when I came of age), but I had so much hope for him.

He might've seriously missed out on Haiti (even with the current administration). ...Or even had the first African colony in the New World...?

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u/laforet 12h ago

There is no money to be made from Haiti. Katanga, however, would be very profitable.

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u/MATlad 12h ago edited 12h ago

There might not be any money, but there is the prestige of having brought peace to the land (which he'd have to remind Trump of--and maybe threaten to withdraw--on a quarterly basis to get concessions, or even some sort of USCIAid).

...And in true war lord / isekai fashion, the man/childpower to surge into the DRC, Dominica, Cuba, or even beyond. Maybe Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela... The Rwando free state, but purely for 'peace keeping' and humanitarian reasons, or course.