Members of the US 9/11 commission advised the Bush Administration to engage Pakistan meaningfully and also provide economic assistance to the Asian nation help fight poverty.
Why that sudden altruism?
Because the Americans believed, and some still do, in that old story of terrorists being bred from poverty, materially-deprived people who were damn jealous of America’s freedom and wonderful lifestyle. So, to combat terrorism, combat poverty!
But since then, experts have found out that most terrorists have been from middle class background, with many highly educated and not lacking of the better things in life. So, there are such things as idealism and nationalistic/ethnic pride (and thus sense of humiliation and anger) beyond the American single-minded focus on materialism.
I could have told them the first part about terrorists not necessarily recruited only from the underprivileged class, because poor people would be far too busy trying to scrape something together to survive rather than f*** around with intellectual fanaticism or crazy ideology that motivates them to acts of sheer hatred. Such ideological bend lies in the provinces of the middle to upper classes of society, as witnessed during the days when Marxism was still vogue.
Since then, the 9/11 commission members have lost their patience with Pakistan’s half-hearted (I term it ‘pretend’) efforts to catch Osama bin Laden and his cohorts.
In fact they have gone as far as to accuse the Musharraf government of doing buggerall to hunt down Osama and henchmen, who are known to be sunbathing along the Pakistan-Afghan border.
However, former US ambassador to Pakistan, Elizabeth Jones, came straight to the point and said what KTemoc on this blog, yes ;-) that's me, has been saying all along, though I said it in a more blunt fashion - hey, I am not an ambassador.
Jones stated that General Musharraf is confronted with the 'most difficulty' in forcing Pakistan’s military intelligence agency, the real pro-Taliban and pro-al Qaeda group in Pakistan, to end its covert support for anti-American factions across the border in Afghanistan. I would be even more blunt and say Musharraf could well be in the complete know and agreement with what his intelligence people have been up to - afterall, isn't he also a military man and their boss.
Why? Please read my earlier post The True Obsession of Pakistan!
Another former US ambassador Dennis Ross said that Musharraf could be scared of being seen by the Pakistani people as an US stooge hunting down Osama, as the Saudi enjoys substantial support among many of Pakistan’s 150 million Muslims. Americans may find this hard to digest but there are many Muslims in this world who believe Osama is a hero.
One notable observation is that Musharraf has consistently refused to permit US forces based in Afghanistan to carry out hot pursuit, meaning across the borders into Pakistani territory, of suspected al Qaeda operatives who run across into Pakistan. I don’t blame him because (1) he would be in thick sh*t with his own people for such blatant surrender of Pakistani sovereignty, and (2) no one wants the American military in their territory – and we should all know why by now.
Some so-called US experts, whom I classify them as redneck idiots, have come up with the harebrain proposal for the US to launch unilateral operations into Pakistani territory to capture or kill Osama, regardless of the consequences for Pakistan. They forgot to add ‘regardless of the consequences for the US forces’ because that would be a more likely outcome. Whatever one might say about the Pakis, they are a warrior race and damn good fighters, and if the Americans can’t even handle the Iraqis, how the hell can they ever dream of handling the Pakis?
Related post:
The True Obsession of Pakistan!
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