[Peace-discuss] Ali's latest on Pakistan

[C. G. Estabrook]

Would they be "secure" in the hands of Cheney, the CIA, or the 
Pentagon's Special Forces?

In fact, I don't think that's on: the central institution in Pakistan 
since the founding of the state is the army, as Ali insists.  A 
half-million men under arms will not roll over and play dead when the US 
arrives, planning to "secure" their nukes.

Pakistan, being an army with a state (like Israel) instead of a state 
with an army, has been the object of recent American policy in that the 
US wants Pakistan to police Afghanistan for us.  (We recently assigned 
NATO the job, but they're dawdling.)

As usual, US policy is consistent over time: it was the US and Pakistan 
(when Bhutto was PM) that put together the Taliban and sent them into 
Afghanistan to clean up the mess "Charlie Wilson's War" (in fact of 
course the CIA's war) had left.

Now we just want them to do it again (and will bomb them if they don't, 
says Obama), but they too are dragging their feet.  That's why the US 
sent Bhutto to shore up Musharraf's government with some US-style 
democracy (i.e., the form without the substance).  She was to say to 
him, like the ghost in Hamlet,

	Do not forget: this visitation
	Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose.

I like the suggestion that Bhutto's epitaph should be, "She trusted the 
Americans."  --CGE


Morton K. Brussel wrote:
> Something very serious lingering behind the headlines is the security of 
> Pakistan's nuclear weapons.  --mkb
> 
> On Dec 31, 2007, at 1:04 AM, C. G. Estabrook wrote:
> 
>> [I like the suggestion that Ms. Bhutto is dead because she didn't have 
>> Blackwater to protect her... And it seems to me that the following 
>> description of Bhutto's party could be applied to one closer to home, 
>> in an age of Bushes and Clintons: "That most of the PPP inner circle 
>> consists of spineless timeservers leading frustrated and melancholy 
>> lives is no excuse. All this could be transformed if inner-party 
>> democracy was implemented. There is a tiny layer of incorruptible and 
>> principled politicians inside the party, but they have been sidelined. 
>> Dynastic politics is a sign of weakness, not strength."  --CGE]
>>
>>     My heart bleeds for Pakistan.
>>     It deserves better than this grotesque feudal charade
>>     By Tariq Ali, Pakistan-born writer, broadcaster and commentator
>>     Published: 31 December 2007
>> ...