September 13, 2008
Nothing Left to Lose…Except….
Pakistani public opinion was already incensed by the U.S. airstrikes into its territory, which have intensified over the last few weeks and have killed civilians as well as militants. That turned to uproar after the first ground assault by U.S. commandos onto its soil earlier this month, in South Waziristan, another part of the tribal territory that runs along the Afghan border. The country was stunned over a New York Times report this week President Bush had secretly authorized the new policy of incursions into Pakistan in July.
It’s just an outrage (sadly one of many) that this administration, in its lame last days, would risk so much for the potential feather of a big “kill” that would benefit McCain and a bankrupt party. There are new people running Pakistan, and what a wonderful start we are getting at enlisting their help. I guess Bush hasn’t heard that they are a nuclear power, and this makes “kick ass and take names later” diplomacy much more dangerous. I recall Republicans decrying Obama’s notion of going into Pakistan to get Bin Laden–but of course Obama’s comment referred to knowing exactly where Bin Laden was, taking him out, and then smoothing the ruffled feathers–not just generally going in whenever for a look-see and blowing up a bunch of crap up without achieving much.
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3 Responses to “Nothing Left to Lose…Except….”
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All SOG operations have to have Executive approval - Pakistan may have not known that, but the press in this counrty certainly should have. And it ought to have been inserted in the original AP/Reuters reports.
“Nul-u-lar” Pakistan may be, but they rightly fear madmen and Bush/Cheney have shown themselve mad beyond redemption…
I still fear a whisper in Israeli ears.
Ahmadinejad is half mad, half sharp as a tack, but either way he won’t do anything ‘crazy’ unless the mullahs loose his leash.
Bush, on the other hand (obviously) has no such constraints. Worse, he believes any outcome couldn’t be bad since he doesn’t recognise reality as a viable context - a bad combination.
Though, to be brutally honest, I fear it’s far too late. I believe Israel is simply waiting for one of those periods where the U.S. is distracted to launch their strike. Say, oh, about mid-October when they economy really tanks, all the mortgage houses and stocks/bond brokers have bitten the dust and the DOW is running under 10,000. Oh, and the reaming ‘bubble’ banks pop. We’ll have our hands full then
Worse, it seems glaringly obvious to me that the election will go to McCain/Palin, both of whom are “believers.” I’m not going to say I believe the thing will be rigged, but I will say there will be many, many voting irregularities in both Ohio and Florida, both states where Karl Rove has spent a lot of time since he left the WH.
And if we’re unlucky enough to have another terrorist attack, of any magnitude, on American soil before November 4th, McCain will walk in. And then you can say ‘goodbye’ to the last of your personal freedoms.
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Hmm…wrote far more than I intended to. I think I started out to say something along the lines of “I tend to agree.” Bad habits, you know.
Hey Doc, good to hear from you. Wow, did you just spell out many of my worries here. I have learned to see that when you think something is just too bizarre to take seriously–Bush/Cheney will make you think again. And they are just the sort, after all, to think that for the good of us all they will act now on behalf of our military needs in the future. This, in spite of the fact that our economy has long been our greatest strength, and they have done a better job than any terrorist could have in undermining it.
Israel. Yes. A re-do of ‘81–and this time perhaps with bunker-buster nukes. You know if we wanted such specialized nukes but were thwarted in building them, they weren’t. And Pakistan. Are you getting the impression that the US has the mistaken idea that we can fight any number of countries all at the same time? The military capabilities of Iraq were a very small fraction of what we would face in Iran or Pakistan, much less both along with others. And right at this moment, we seem to be doing everything we can to get Russia to flex its muscles–having as it does very close economic ties with Iran. I’m telling you, Bush and Cheney have read the “End Times” novels (I would say the book of Revelations, but they wouldn’t have the patience to actually read the Bible themselves; it’s so much easier to let the nut cases all around tell you what’s in it), and they see apocalypse as a win for “us.”
It has to do, I think, with the continuation of the Bush Doctrine and the ‘debate’ being played out in the military between the Crusdares and the Conservatives over the direction the services will take. I’m fairly sure that Bush/Cheney have decided that up until 20 January they are going to take every opportunity to limit the next President’s options vis a vis rational troop deployments around the world and committments to Iraq.
More, the WH is concerned that unless Taliban forces that have been using Pakistan as a refuuge can be flushed, Afghanistan will be lost. Thus, the WH is treating Afghanistan and Pakistan as a single ‘war’.
(If this all sounds vaguely familar then you’re old enough to remember the same logic being employed to ‘o.k’ incrusions into Cambodia during the viet nam fiasco…which absolutely, positively has no similarity to the Iraqi fiasco currently playing at a multi-plex near you…)
Never mind Pakistan is yet another legitimate, sovereign state. You can expect further raids into Pakistan before Bush leaves office, and I imagine that McCain will be all for them, as well as air strikes. And, tell you what, they will probably get away with it since they’ve made an under the table deal with Zardari…
Shit won’t hit the proverbial faun until/unless civilain casualties start becoming to obvious for the tame ‘liberal’ press to ignore.