‘Pakistan ran like a scared dog with tail between its legs’: Former Pentagon official Rubin

WASHINGTON: Former Pentagon official Michael Rubin has said that India targeted terror infrastructure with precision, and it was able to blunt Pakistan’s response following the recent strikes. He said that “Pakistan went running to try to achieve a ceasefire like a scared dog with its tail between its legs” after India put their airfields out of commission.

He also took a jibe at US President Donald Trump’s tendency to claim credit for almost every achievement. Rubin who is currently a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute stated that the Pakistani military cannot shield itself from the full reality of the fact that it “lost very, very badly.” He said India has emerged victorious both diplomatically and militarily and mentioned that all attention is now on Pakistan’s terrorist sponsorship.

#WATCH | Washington, DC | On India-Pakistan conflict, former Pentagon official and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, Michael Rubin, says, “…Pakistan went running to try to achieve a ceasefire like a scared dog with its tail between its legs. There is… pic.twitter.com/KxedVCO5Dd

— ANI (@ANI) May 14, 2025

On how he sees strikes conducted by India on May 7 and whether India was able to achieve what it wanted to convey, Rubin said, “India won this both diplomatically and militarily. The reason why India won diplomatically is all attention is now on Pakistan’s terrorist sponsorship.”

“The fact that Pakistani officers in uniform attended the funeral of terrorists shows that there is no differentiation between a terrorist and a member of the ISI or the Pakistani armed forces. Basically, the world is going to demand that Pakistan extract the rot from its own system. So, diplomatically, India changed the conversation, militarily, Pakistan is shocked. Look, I’m a historian by training and that means I get paid to predict the past. And one thing that we can say with certainty is that Pakistan has started every single war with India and yet convinced itself that somehow it has won. It’s going to be very different…to convince themselves that they won this 4-day war. The reason is. India was able to, with precision, decimate the terror headquarters and training camps.”

“When Pakistan responded, India was able to blunt their response and then when Pakistan continued to try to retaliate, India was able to put their airfields out of commission. Pakistan went running to try to achieve a ceasefire like a scared dog with its tail between its legs. And the fact of the matter is there is absolutely no spin that the Pakistani military can put on what occurred to shield themselves from the full reality of the fact that they not only lost but they lost very, very badly.

“The question now, however, is what Pakistan will do next. Clearly, there’s a problem within the Pakistani military, both because it’s a cancer on Pakistani society and because as a military, it’s incompetent and so is Asim Munir going to keep his job? Is the ego of Pakistani generals going to trump the future strength and well-being of all of Pakistani society? Basically, Pakistan needs to clean house, but it’s an open question whether they are too far gone to do that,” he added.

#WATCH | Washington, DC | “…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…”… pic.twitter.com/A6HLH3FKmd

— ANI (@ANI) May 14, 2025

Michael Rubin also 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.

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.

As many as 26 people were killed and several others were injured in the terrorist attack that took place in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam on April 22.

In response to the Pahalgam attack, Indian Armed Forces launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 and targeted terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, leading to the death of over 100 terrorists affiliated with terror outfits like the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Hizbul Mujahideen (HM).

After the attack, Pakistan retaliated with cross-border shelling across the Line of Control and Jammu and Kashmir as well as attempted drone attacks along the border regions, following which India launched a coordinated attack and damaged radar infrastructure, communication centres and airfields across airbases in Pakistan. On May 10, India and Pakistan reached an understanding on the cessation of hostilities.

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)