How do you think the country is doing in its effort to pretend that Pakistan wasn’t harboring bin-Laden? I mean, what are we supposed to do when we rely on Pakistan to supply our troops in Afghanistan?
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BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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BooMan,
and I mean this in all seriousness…
the same way that we pretend that Saudi Arabia is our ‘ friend.’
the same Saudi Arabia that created the Wahhabi-sect of Islam…
then spent the money to spread it all around the world, by funding the schools who taught the basics of DEATH TO THE WEST.
which brought us 15 out of the 19 hijackers from 9/11
yes, how we pretend they are our ‘ friends’.
They have nukes and so does India. It’s important that Pakistan and India not get into a war.
Not very well lol. I think it’s more the Pakistani government vs. the army/ISI. Either way, most foreign aid should end; end it to Pakistan, Egypt, Israel etc. Not right away, but phase it out and make it clear why.
Solving that Kashmir issue is at the heart of all this, but Pakistan is more or less a failed nation-state. A lot of its citizens are very nationalistic, too, and are in denial about its shortcomings. Yes yes, so is the USA with its “We’re #1” when we’re really not, but I’m sure people know what I’m talking about. I get that feeling every time I talk with my Pakistani friends. I hope one of them can get his student visa renewed…he might be deported.
Congresscritters can jab all they want. And all they usually want is to be important and in the papers and on the teevee. None of that matters, it’s all preening.
If anyone in the executive branch goes off the reservation it’s a different story. Hard to walk it back. So far the Obama administration has had good message discipline. I imagine they’ll stay on top of it.
Really, what does anyone think we should do about it? As crappy as it is, the government in Pakistan is so clearly the best possible case (and barely holding on, at that) that any intervention or aggressive action is laughable.
So, really, it’s not how are we doing, but what should we do about it????????
Can’t wait to see the chain of title and the paperwork on the construction of that house. Great that they say they couldn’t involve the Pakistanis in the raid because of possible adverse consequences to the imprisoned CIA Raymond Davis.
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"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."How about pulling all financial aid from Pakistan? Wonder how many billions we give them every year? Sure could use that here at home for our, you know, deficit problem. Are we just supporting them because they have nukes? WHY are we giving them money anyway, especially since old Osama has been harbored there for 6 years.
Lugar is already calling for that.
not the time to leave the hornets nest that is Pakistan
Didn’t we, um, invade Afghanistan and depose the Taliban in the first place under the wholy invented Bush doctrine that they were “harboring” bin Laden? (Of course, people have completely forgotten that the Taliban offered to turn bin Laden over to a neutral third party country for trial, but the US refused the offer.) By that logic, we should be raining bombs on Pakistan right now, too.
Oh. Wait. We already are. Sorry, I’m having a hard time keeping us with all our pointless undeclared wars.
“Wholly,” and “keeping up.” Typing that’s good enough for government work!
How high up does the collusion go? How widespread? This is bigger then I dreamed with the Bin Laden mansion beside an army base thing.
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"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."The neighbors didn’t know Osama was living there. When the US unsealed the house, people were standing by looking at it with interest.
And why didn’t they know, is the question. They didn’t want to? they wanted to stay out of the ISI’s clutches?
The neighbors likely didn’t know because bin Laden was in hiding. It’s not like the man was walking around the neighborhood advertising the fact that he was Osama bin Laden. “Oh hi – I just moved into the neighborhood and wanted to introduce myself. And I’d like to let you all know that I’m wanted in connection with a few thousand murders by the US.”
I know in my neighborhood – where I’ve lived now for the better part of a decade – I know less than half the folks who live here. New folks move in, old folks move out – any one of them could be a fugitive from somewhere and I wouldn’t know until their house was raided. Why would I expect the neighborhoods in Pakistan to be that much different?
because it is much more densely populated than most usa neighborhoods (look at the pics), ppl don’t use cars as much, they’re walking around, talking to each other -not necessarily everyone who lives in a given (especially luxury) house, but ppl who work there, ordinarily, and because evidently he lived there 6 years (according to MoDowd col today in NY Times)
What I’m saying is that ppl would notice if they were keeping a low profile, none of the workers in the house talking to anyone, etc and they would gossip. Ppl would know who was there even if they didn’t say anything in order to not meet with an unfortunate accident.
Booman Tribune ~ Comments ~ Serious Question
haha… i’m sure they suspected, apparently in the compound they burned their own trash and had no phone or internet lines to tap.
whether it was healthy to say much about it…even 25 million bux reward won’t protect you completely.
here:
The answer you’re looking for is, I believe: “Get the fuck OUT of Afghanistan”.
By the way, Obama made an incredibly brave decision when he took out Bin Laden. Had it gone wrong the Republicans would have had 2012 sewn up. Not just the White House but everything else. If John Kennedy were writing “Profiles in Courage” today he’d have to include a chapter on Obama.
Forget it, BooMan, it’s just the usual corruption of realpolitik. The Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations were all in on it. We’ll look back on this period with dismay, but what are you gonna do?
After 9/11, if you had to pick two countries most responsible for the success and proliferation of al Qaeda and salafist jihad, you would go with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
But they have nukes and oil and holy sites and primo business contacts with the MIC, so we invaded Afghanistan and Iraq instead. And then gave tens of billions of dollars to Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. While accepting back hundreds of billions of dollars in arms purchases. The virtuous cycle of invirtuous high-stakes global politics.
It all depends on what you mean by “Pakistan”. It is not like the government, military, or ISI operate in one direction or with one voice. One wonders who was shielding bin Laden, if that was the case, and who was looking for him. Just like one wonders who besides the Pakistani Taliban was behind the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. A convenient security failure.
The authorities in Pakistan have not shown themselves to be unified in any of their institutions.
Just like one wonders what the Bush folks were doing about finding bin Laden from 2001 to 2009. Did the Bushies know that some elements of the Pakistani military/ISI were sheltering bin Laden in Abbotobad?
Unserious Answer:
Why did the Pakistanis say that they couldn’t find Bin Laden for years when he was living in their midst?
They had been watching Fox News and thought they were looking for Obama Bin Laden.
About as well as we’re doing pretending there weren’t war criminals in the Bush administration. Or massive fraud at the direction bank executives. So, pretty damn good.