11 - The Pakistani Dissident Soldier: Adil Raja

In this episode of Why We Fight, I speak with Adil Raja, a former major in the Pakistani military who became one of its fiercest critics.

Now living in exile in the UK, Raja pulls back the curtain on how Pakistan’s military has dominated the country’s politics, enabled extremism, and violently suppressed dissent both at home and abroad.

We explore:

· His transformation from decorated officer to dissident journalist

· His firsthand account of how the military manipulates elections, courts, and media

· How the generals built and deployed jihadist militias as tools of foreign policy

· Why transnational repression is one of the biggest threats to democracy today

· The brutal retaliation he and his family faced for speaking out

· His ongoing legal battle in the UK against a SLAPP lawsuit filed by a top Pakistani general

· What democracies must do to play the geostrategic game while staying as true to their values as possible

This is a detailed account about how the Pakistani military’s ‘Deep State’ controls every aspect of life in the nuclear-armed country.

Links to Mr. Raja’s work can be found here:

https://soldierspeaks.org/

and his Patreon can be found here:

https://www.patreon.com/SoldierSpeaks

Let me know what you think in the comments below!

Enjoy!

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Democracy is Non-Negotiable

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