Thus far, if I could pinpoint one major criticism of President Obama it would be that he appears to be pursuing the same line of strategy with Pakistan as President Bush did. Recent reports indicate that administration officials are working with Pakistani officials to negotiate with the Taliban, who have now advanced to within 100 miles of the capital city of Islamabad.
If you recall, President Bush tried to negotiate with the Taliban right after 9-11 and look at how well that went. He then proceeded to do nothing for the next seven years and essentially created this problem. Now, President Obama seems intent on continuing this same mistake. If the Taliban takes control of Pakistan--a very real possibility--then the people that harbored Al Qaeda will have access to nuclear weapons.
They will also have access to the Agosta class submarines currently sitting in the port of Karachi These subs have air delivery missile systems that can easily be upgraded to nuclear tips. As I have stated several times on this blog, I think that Al Qaeda wants to bigger than 9-11 on their next attack....little piddly shit just won't do. There is no doubt in my mind that this is they type of attack they have envisioned.
You can add into this whole mess that half the Pakistani army as well most of its intelligence agencies is pro Taliban. We have a very large problem here that needs more pressure than is currently being applied. Now, I don't see the daily intelligence briefings so I could be off in saying this but we need to step up our drone attacks and push the Pakistani government into letting us assist more in defense. If they refuse, we need to do it anyway.
It doesn't surprise me either that the "liberal" media isn't reporting this at all. To say the situation is grave is a fucking understatement. Time is running out.
2 comments:
You seem to be mad because Obama is not pulling a Bush in Pakistan; i.e., he's not invading the place based on fear and lies. You know that since 9/11 I've said that the real problem has always been Pakistan. Pakistan has been the problem since we torpedoed the Russians' invasion of Afghanistan using Taliban and Al-Qaeda thugs. Pakistan has been the nexus for nuclear proliferation.
Bush propped up Musharraf for years because he was afraid of Pakistan giving terrorists nukes to use on India or the US. This is the real fear -- that they have suitcase nukes that they will use against us if we try to take down the Pakistani secret service that has been using the Taliban and Al Qaeda as a hammer against India for the last thirty years.
Going all Bush on Pakistan would be a colossal error, perhaps an even greater error than invading Iraq. Because, unlike Iraq, Pakistan really does have nukes. That's why Bush picked on the sickly old man of the Middle East, rather than the countries that could actually fight back. Bush was stupid, but not so stupid as to mess with the nuclear monster that we allowed to grow as a "lever" against our enemies in the region.
The last thing we should do is throw our weight around in Pakistan. In fact, the best thing we could do is avoid telling Pakistan to do anything. The less we say, the more latitude the Pakistani government has. Because they basically can't do anything we tell them, for fear of looking like our puppet.
We need to hammer the hell out of the Taliban sneaking out of Waziristan, and let our diplomats do some serious talking with Islamabad behind the scenes. It's really hard because there are so many bad actors in Pakistan. But we really can't go charging in there because the bad guys will win the instant we do. We do anything crazy and the moderate Pakistanis will lose all credibility.
You're right about the press coverage. I've heard snippets here and there about towns falling under Taliban control, and I've heard in the past that the ISI - the Pakistani Secret Service - is riddled with Taliban sympathisers, but there just doesn't seem to be as much attention as you'd think the situation would warrant. Sure, the economy is a very important issue, but that'll fade right quick if there's a nuclear detonation in the States.
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