…is the enemy. So is Iran. And Syria.
It’s darned hard to win a war when you pretend you’re not at war.
11 thoughts on “Pakistan”
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…is the enemy. So is Iran. And Syria.
It’s darned hard to win a war when you pretend you’re not at war.
Comments are closed.
“We know that Pakistan’s intelligence service is aiding terrorists. What are we going to do about it?”
Not much as long as our supplies run through Pakistan. Although, that situation appears to be changing. Whomever is President after 2012, will have more options.
It is rather surprising that people in the media are just now becoming aware of the Haqqani. Maybe not too surprising considering they drew all the wrong conclusions from the Kabul attack a couple weeks ago. It wasn’t Tet, no matter how much they wish it was.
It sounds as if Pakistan is as much of a failed state as Afghanistan. But how do you redraw the borders of three states (Af, Pak, Iran) one of which has nuclear weapons? Pakistan might have to be broken up altogether.
Once they’ve decided that they’re not in any personal danger, they wish everything the US is involved in overseas was Tet.
Rand, don’t you long for the days when you thought Pakistan was “a key ally” and Obama was a numbskull for threatening to attack it….
See www dot transterrestrial dot com/archives/009477.html
I still think he was for doing it. Then.
Context.
Pakistan has had a shift in government in the last 2 1/2 years. Back then the guy at the top was our ally, even if parts of the country weren’t. Today I’m not sure we have any friends in power in that country.
I don’t know why — as the author of the piece you linked to points out, there is a direct line between candidate Obama’s comments on Pakistan and the raid on Bin Laden’s home in Abbotabad.
I suppose Admiral Mullen cleared his comments with Obama (and Clinton and the rest of the White House team) before he spoke, given the foreign policy and national security implications. Were Mullen’s public comments a good idea ?But Candidate Obama’s public comments were not a good idea?
PetereH,
Zardari is pro-Western, or at least, his public stance is as pro-Western as Musharraf. And the ISI apparently didn’t change under either leader, perhaps regardless of their wishes, or perhaps not.
Anyway, Rand, if your view is that islamic extremism is the problem in Pakistan, then don’t forget that paranoia over India is what is driving guys like Musharraf and Zardari and maybe the ISI too — they even worry about Indian influence in Afghanistan.
Pakistan is a key ally but they are not a trustworthy one. We operate our drones their with their approval. Just like the Haqqani operate with their approval.
Why is Pakistan a key ally? Because nearly all of our supplies go through there. It is a stupid thing to say you would attack Pakistan, unless there is an alternate route for our supplies.
Which is why Obama worked with Pakistan to get our drones in the air there.
When we have an alternate route for supplies, the question can be asked to Pakistan again. Will they or wont they go after the Taliban, Haqqani, and other similar groups? Then we will see just what kind of ally they are.
Even harder to win a war when you are [big time] financing your enemies. Having a president who actually cares about our troops (and recently had her son back from the war zone) might shake things up a bit. Our ally is India who also deals with our enemies because we haven’t done what we should. A president with good relations with India having personally visited and had conversation with them might also be a good idea.
We are playing Risk for real except only the other side knows it.