Did you see this in The New York Times:
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The head of Pakistan’s army, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, said Thursday that he would not tolerate a repeat of the American covert operation that killed Osama bin Laden, warning that any similar action would lead to a reconsideration of the relationship with the United States.
Of course, this stimulates three immediate reactions:
- You won’t “tolerate” it? Really? Perhaps you’d like to explain what that means.
- What a coincidence. We just reconsidered our relationship with you.
- So… you think another such raid by us is likely? Does that mean you’ve got somebody else at the top of our list hiding on your turf? Tell you what — why don’t you just can the tough talk and give us a map to his house? Save everybody a lot of trouble.
Yeah, I know this is about Pakistan’s extremely fouled-up internal politics. But you know what? I’ve had it up to here with Pakistan’s extremely fouled-up internal politics. Reconsider away, fellas, and make up your minds which side you’re on in this war.
Yeah, I know I’m sounding like the arrogant Ugly American (with “big, tough, confrontational talk” of my own) in dismissing your hurt pride in this way. But finding out you’d been letting bin Laden hang in the ‘burbs with your own generals for the last 6 years sort of put me in an ugly mood.
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I know I’m scared.
A sad passing. Claude Choules the last male veteran of WW I passed away yesterday. He served in the Royal Navy and later with the Australian Navy. He was the last veteran of both world wars. Later in life he became disgusted with war and refused to attend many of the memorial services related to the world wars suggesting that nothing was accomplished by these wars. He indicated a couple years ago that he was shocked that we are still fighting wars in the 21st century. Mr. Choules was 110.
Phillip really nailed this one. Many of problems in the region are self-fulfilling prophesies in a sense. We continue to wring our hands over this or that corrupt regime and then we attempt to impose our will on that regime in an effort that leads to problems in other countries. Then we try to correct the problems with the regime of a differnt nation. Seems like our best long-term strategy is to just get out of the region all together at least in a military sense and just work toward resolving our own problems. Meddling in the Middle-east will never work so let’s just move on.
Why would the passing of a 110 year old man be “sad”? I’d say that was a long life to live. He probably outlived his children… now that’s “sad”.
As long as there are living organism on this planet there will be wars and conflict. I don’t quite understanding how someone would be shocked that there are still wars being fought. The Middle East has been fighting continuous wars for centuries.
The best thing we can do with Pakistan is walk away from them with our checkbook. They’re in China’s pocket anyway, let China support them.
What’s the “Biden Model”, get everyone’s teeth over-whitened and teach them to shoot off at the mouth when is a disagreement?
Understatement of the year?
“Al-Qaida confirms Osama bin Laden’s death”
http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20110506/BREAKINGNEWS/110506007/Al-Qaida-confirms-Osama-bin-Laden-s-death-vows-retaliation?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Home
What’s Pakistan gonna do?
I think we ought to stop sending money to Pakistan. They’re obviously not using it for our intended purposes.
Well, as you correctly imply, Gen. Kayani’s comments actually are meant for Pakistani domestic political consumption.
We all have had an understandable reaction to the astonishing fact of OBL’s being discovered where he was. But since you’re a big fan of thinking rationally and not emotionally, now that a few days have passed I would encourage you to step back and consider the options. We don’t have as many as you think, and while certainly we have to keep pressuring Pakistan to “do the right thing,” we cannot simply “wish away” the reality of their divided internal functioning.
Daniel Larison in the American Conservative has a pretty clear-headed assessment, I think. His key point: “If there were elements within the ISI that sheltered bin Laden, as I assume there were, that doesn’t prove that they were acting with the knowledge or approval of all Pakistani authorities.”
Fact is, as many times as Pakistan has hindered our efforts to get the bad guys, they’ve also helped us get a lot of bad guys too. That’s because they’re essentially at war with themselves, and if you ask them to “make up their minds” which side they’re on, well naturally they’re on Pakistan’s side, just as we would always be on America’s side.
The best thing we could do to help Pakistan solidify its internal situation and hasten its tilt away from Islamic fundamentalism would be to declare our major objectives achieved, more or less leave Afghanistan following a negotiated arrangement with the Taliban, reduce our obvious presence in Pakistan (while still keeping intelligence operations active), and move more toward the “Biden” model of involvement in the region, do the best we can to gather intel to prevent and forestall terrorist activities, but accept that no liberal democracy will ever have the capability to completely guarantee prevention of all such actions.
Bin Laden is gone. It’s just time to move on. The MSM has this irratating tendancy to cover the news story of the moment in excruciating detail while ignoring just about everything else. I’d like to know what’s going on with those nuclear reactors in Japan. If they’ve been stabalized I’d like to know that. And what’s going on in Libya and Syria, not to mention Egypt. On the home front have we solved our debt/unemployment problems? (Must have since Lindsey Graham is pushing so hard for the wasteful I-73 project). And there was a huge story related to climate change the other day. It was mentioned on NPR but largely ignored everywhere else.
It’s great that we got Bin Laden and this should bring some sense of cloture to the families of the victims. Plus it may have some long-run implications for safety. But as far as it’s impact on the U.S. the other stories are far more important.
If you’re tired of hearing about this, you’re going to be disappointed. This has set a LOT in motion, from making use of the intel the Seals grabbed, to our evolving relationship w/ Pakistan…
Brad you are only right until something else comes along. A big earthquake, hurricane or assassination and the Bin Laden story and it’s impact will no longer be discussed on the nightly news.
@Steven: that’s funny about Biden’s teeth, though he certainly can’t hold a candle to the blinding (and seemingly prolific) incisors of our current Governor.
The so-called Biden model comes from an earlier 2009 debate within the administration on the best approach to Afghanistan/Pakistan and the amount of forces needed there. At the time, Obama overruled Biden’s recommendation.
One of the comments on this photo blog says “Pakistan said the world must share the blame for failing to unearth the terrorist chief earlier.”
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/05/04/the_killers_lair?page=full
Really? It was under your nose for 5-6 years, living in Pakistan!