Yes, it's happening. Get ready to rock, Karachi!
Part one of my hard-hitting series on a country that requires 24-7 attention by an administration that, you could say, has its hands full.
One of many foreign policy crises at the moment, Pakistan and its problems were ignored for far too long, and it's coming back to bite us in the ass, technically speaking.
(Pakistan Visitor Center image provided by AP)
Before anything can happen, folks in that neighborhood have to learn how to get along or it's all for nothing. In fact, there's this country named Afghanistan -- you know, the one we invaded related to this thing called 9/11 and this guy named Osama bin Laden -- which comes to mind.
Whereas we have Mexican drug cartels doing some bloody cross-border business, Afghanistan has to deal with militants holidaying on the other side of the Pakistani border before going for a nice suicide bombing stroll.
The area known as Waziristan was mentioned in wire reports long before anyone wanted to open their eyes to the extremist breeding ground that could easily creep into Karachi, Lahore or Islamabad.
In fact, there's a not-so friendly group of bearded gentleman known as the Taliban now operating in Afghanistan and Pakistan. I can recall a speech by this not-so bright guy who lived on Pennsylvania Avenue (in between clearing brush in Crawford, Texas) proclaiming the Taliban have been eliminated in America's grand war on terror.
Considering our strategy for dealing with Pakistan's border problems is Predator drones, the words "intelligence on the ground" seem to be nonexistent. For every militant actually killed in the drone operations, there are three created from the civilian casualties that sometimes come as part of the strikes.
But does anyone really think the words "government" and "intelligence" can ever truly intersect?
More importantly, who'da thunk giving billions of military aid to a general who took power wouldn't work out? I mean, supporting coups, pre- or post-power grab, has always been a sound strategy for the U.S.
Don't worry, Musharraf and Bush will straighten it out... oh, wait a minute.
No comments:
Post a Comment