Baitullah Mehsud held a freaking press conference
If you want to know how the war in Pakistan/Afghanistan is going, top Taleban leader and admitted author of innumerable operations in Afghanistan, Baitullah Mehsud, held an extended press conference in South Waziristan.
(Also some good depth on Mehsud and his relationships.)
And, then there's this unverified report that Benazir Bhutto herself smuggled nuclear secrets to North Korea in 1993 in exchange for missile information.....
Later: (NYTimes) "A car bomb exploded outside the Danish Embassy in an upscale area of the Pakistani capital Monday, killing at least six people, according to reports from hospitals."
(Also some good depth on Mehsud and his relationships.)
And, then there's this unverified report that Benazir Bhutto herself smuggled nuclear secrets to North Korea in 1993 in exchange for missile information.....
Later: (NYTimes) "A car bomb exploded outside the Danish Embassy in an upscale area of the Pakistani capital Monday, killing at least six people, according to reports from hospitals."
posted by mikevotes at
9:35 PM
4 Comments:
From the NYT linked article:
"In essence, the Pakistani authorities stuck to a long-standing policy of “strategic depth” in Afghanistan as a bulwark against its enemy India, and Mr. Mehsud was a tool in that game, he said."
Maybe we're finally realising that Pakistan's main concern is not making the U.S. happy, but rather with it's primary and bitter nemesis of India. Afghanistan is just a proxy war for Pakistan, and as long as Afghanistan is unstable, then their strategy is 'working' and India can't have any influence there.
There's a big price to be paid for that strategy, but not as big a price as war with India would be.
As I've said before, Bush has blundered into a situation where people who seem to be our allies have interests counter to our own, and those who appear to be our enemies have vital interests that coincide with ours. Unfortunately, his black and white, simplistic world view does not allow for such subtleties.
By
Todd Dugdale , at 12:05 AM
Yeah, I debated sticking that in there. It is a much larger point and I didn't want to write that long a post.
I figured most, like yourself, who come here, already recognize the Pakistani interests have pulled away from the US.
PS. There was a point many years ago when alot of these countries were willing to take on the US's interests for awhile to some degree, but things have been so badly mismanaged that they have decided that they're better off doing it themselves.
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mikevotes, at 7:33 AM
taking advantage of your mention of Bhutto in the 3rd paragraph: I distinctly heard her say in some interview that Osama bin Laden was dead - 'murdered', in her words.
she's a fairly high-profile figure, and one to which news commentators often refer. she has a degree of credibility. why is it that, as far as talk-show talking heads are concerned, Osama bin Laden is now "somewhere in Pakistan"?
does anyone reading this have a sense as to why the public narrative seems to ignore her statement?
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r8r, at 7:03 PM
"There was a point many years ago when alot of these countries were willing to take on the US's interests for awhile to some degree..."
Care to expand on this sometime?
I would go so far as to say that Pakistan never was really concerned about our interests, and that they just have dropped any pretense at this point.
The $10 billion we gave them to fight the battle we wanted them to fight was spent on arms to fight India. Musharraf made sympathetic noises to Bush that were unpopular domestically, but the real objective has always been to prevent India from having any influence over the Tajik and Hazara people that dominate the border districts with Kashmir. The Northern Alliance (the main Taliban foe prior to our invasion) was controlled by India, and Pakistan used AQ and Taliban as proxies to limit the NA's power.
If Bush could get India to relinquish Kashmir (or something similar), Afghanistan would solve itself because it woould no longer serve any useful purpose for Pakistan. For the money and manpower we have devoted to Afghanistan and Pakistan, we could have solved the root issue between Afghanistan, India, and Pakistan while solving our own problem at the same time.
By
Todd Dugdale , at 7:03 PM
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