Chapter 35: Ring of Delusion

Humpty dumpty sat on the wall, waiting for egg to fall.
America's drift governance has recently manifested in what appears to be a desperate regional encirclement strategy aimed at India. This reveals both tactical awareness and strategic incoherence. The encircling a target aims to isolate the opponent, rendering them ineffective and forcing either their surrender or destruction. In this case the encirclement has brought havoc beyond the east and west borders of India.
It appears the USA is escalating its operations after losing access to Pakistani facilities. America lost forward bases in Pakistan after Operation Sindoor. Now they desperately need replacement staging areas in the region.
Bagram was America's main hub during the Afghanistan occupation. Losing it in 2021 created a strategic gap. Now they want it back after India exposed their Pakistan operations. But the Taliban said no to the base request. They will talk but will not give America military facilities. This forces America to look elsewhere for forward positions. Now, they are focussing on Bangladesh. It is anew Regional Encirclement Strategy .
Dhaka Escalation
Mohammad Yunus has been installed as effective dictator in Bangladesh through what can only be described as a CIA-orchestrated regime change operation. American CIA operatives and Marines are currently training the Bangladesh Army. This creates a client military force on India's eastern border. This represents a classic imperial play-book execution. The tactics are familiar and professionally implemented.
Terrence Arvelle Jackson was found dead in Room 808 of the Westin Hotel in Dhaka, on August 31, 2025. He was a Command Inspector General for 1st Special Forces Command (Airborne). He was in Dhaka for over six months on an alleged “business trip”. An active air force person is on business trip that lasts months? You guess it.
Apart from him, Peter Haas, former Ambassador, is a regular traveller to Dhaka. Presently he is on his sixth visit to Dhaka within a year. Indian agencies had flagged him for anti-India activities. Jackson was not just any officer. He was a CIA operative who had played a key role in regime change operations in Bangladesh. Six visits in one year suggests intensive operational activity.
U.S. military presence expanded dramatically in Bangladesh through 2025. The joint military exercise “Tiger Lightning 2025” was held at the Para Commando Brigade headquarters. It ran from July 15 to August 5, exactly matching the post-Operation Sindoor timeline. The United States worked with Bangladesh's Army and Navy to develop Unmanned Aerial System capabilities. A Bangladesh regiment would operate the new RQ-21 Blackjack system.
The sequence shows rapid deployment of U.S. assets to Bangladesh after losing Pakistani bases. Bangladesh becomes the replacement forward position for American operations in South Asia.
A series of events have happened in Bangladesh. Its northern border has moved in by 40-50 kilome tres while the satellite images of Chinese satellite show no anomaly. Afire broke out at an airport which burnt billions of dollars worth of assets. Rumour has it that an Pakistani ISI agent has been found dead on October 24, 2025 in Hotel Sheraton Dhaka.
In response to India's strategic autonomy and regional security consolidation, the US has attempted to establish parallel footprints in the Bay of Bengal. By mid-2026, the US entered negotiations with Bangladesh for the GSOMIA and ACSA agreements to park naval assets at Chittagong and Matarbari, seeking a counterweight to India's growing maritime dominance in the region.
The Manipur Precedent
USA’s earlier attempt was in Manipur, north-east state of India. Christian churches were used to flare uprising for over a year. This followed the classic regime change play-book. Use religious or ethnic divisions to create internal conflicts. Support proxy groups against central government authority. Escalate tensions through external funding and coordination. We have extensively dealt with similar operations in another chapter on Regime Change Operations.
When the Manipur operations failed to create sustained instability, America moved operations to Bangladesh. The pattern shows systematic attempts to pressure India through proxy conflicts and internal destabilization.
The Manipur situation has now been settled. But it demonstrated America's willingness to use religious networks for political destabilization. The same churches that promoted uprising in Manipur have connections to similar networks in Bangladesh.
Nepal Coup
Nepal has similarly experienced destabilizing regime change operations. This creates another point of potential pressure on India's northern frontier. The pattern of simultaneous regional destabilization around a target nation follows established CIA operational doctrine. It is a botched up CIA operation as no USA official has paid a visit to the Himalayan kingdom in the aftermath. The White House too has ignored it in press statements.
Now the British BBC is wondering why Gen Z is not coming on roads in India, like Nepal.
Pakistan-Saudi Defence Pact
Most revealing is the Pakistan-Saudi Arabia mutual defence agreement. The treaty was signed on 17 September 2025 by Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman and Pakistani prime minister Shehbaz Sharif in Riyadh, declaring that any attack on either nation constitutes an attack on both. This agreement is impossible without explicit American sanctions, particularly given that the Saudi Air Force depends heavily on American support.
A war broke out between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Pakistan lost dozens of army personnel and its border posts. A ceasefire was reached in Doha, Qatar but Saudi did not step in.
The strategic purpose of the Pact is transparent. It threatens India with two-front pressure (East-West axis) should India resume Operation Sindoor, which remains suspended. The message is clear. Any Indian military operations against Pakistani-based terrorism will trigger broader regional conflict.
Washington calls this the Ring of Crisis Zones Around India. They think it is strategic brilliance. Actually, it is tactical cleverness masking strategic stupidity. It is not a ring of crisis around India, it is a ring of delusion which has encircled Washington.
Imperial Self-destruction
As explained in previous chapters, this escalation follows a historical pattern seen in collapsing empires. When empires face decline, they often choose catastrophic military adventures over managed retreat. Desperate empires do not think logically about costs and consequences.
America's thirty trillion dollar military arsenal becomes useless if it cannot be replenished in a war. The previous chapter covered how overstretch threatens America's ability to maintain global military dominance. But knowing this does not prevent emotional responses to strategic humiliation.
A Military action on India seems unlikely but not entirely impossible. But there are other possibilities too. It may end in many other ways. Only time will tell what America will choose. But the New Cold War has started. We will discuss it in the next chapter.