The Pakistani government has responded by closing an airbase and two border crossings.
It looks like this incident has major implications-was this a mistake or evidence of (active) Pakistani collusion with the Taliban?
In any case, since errors of this type are common in this war, does this mean the US will re-evaluste the whole mess?
Will this result in a speeded up withdrawal?
Sounds like some major heads will roll…I wonder how long before Obama makes a statement?
Cite? Yes, America has previous, but is it common?
Pakistani based Taliban was fleeing back over the border to their bases in Pakistan. It appears the Pakistani base was firing across the border on the pursuing Afghan forces, which then called in US fire support. Yes it is time to ditch Pakistan. Cut all aid. Withdraw from Afghanistan too. You gave it a shot. Nation-building is a failure. Next time it’s back to the traditional tried and tested method of destroying enemies.
The problem with Afghanistan is there was no reason to be there. The Taliban are bad, but they were not our enemies. They just hid OBL. We wouldn’t have ousted them if not for OBL and they’d likely still be in power.
Pakistan cannot be dumped as it’s got nukes. And we have to keep on good terms with nations with nukes.
Pakistan is a mess, but it’s better to keep friendly with them, and be able to keep an eye on what is happening then be left in the dark
Thanks I needed a good laugh.
:rolleyes:
The Pakistani I.S.I. is, and has been supporting the Afghan insurgents for quite some time and shows no signs of stopping.
Of course there is a reason to be there. According to [del]conspiracy nuts[/del] experts, an oil pipeline is being built.
As to Pakistan being a nuclear power, I would not be stunned with surprise if their nuclear ability could be dealt with very quickly, and very efficiently by other nations using non nuclear means, before they’d even got the tea hot.
But not by the Americans , who, don’t take offence at this, totally suck at missions of this sort.
Smaller nations get a lot of "warm good feling "from having a nuclear capability.
But the feeling is totally illusionary.
Since that’s an obviously thing to try I doubt that. Especially since it would have to be done perfectly.
No it isn’t. It invariably produces better treatment, and makes other countries far less willing to attack. And your comment about Americans only supports my point, given that America is generally the biggest bully around.
Then pray do tell why has it not been done already.
It’s probably not that easy to take out 100 nuclear warheads.
Am I the only one who finds the logic of ‘They’re nuclear so we can’t cut off ties with them’ to be entirely mystifying? Surely that can’t be the foundation for any sort of meaningful relationship. Sort of like ‘My crazy ex-girlfriend just bought a gun so I’m going to keep talking to her to make sure she doesn’t kill herself/my family’.
Nation States are not like ex-girlfriends, the dynamics are completely different. As a Pakistan, I would be delighted if we never had to deal with Afghanistan or the US for that matter, bur its unrealistic, one is a neighbour and the other is the worlds only superpower.
Just because I’ve got a gymn membership, it doesn’t mean that I’ve got to go there,
Pakistan is really not a unified nation. There are definite factions. First you have the government. They are not stupid. These people are fully aware of the consequences of their actions. But as I said, they aren’t stupid. The populous is not very pro American. They will pay lip service to their own people, while keeping America clued in.
Pakistan has factions as I said, the tribes in the NW are nominally ruled by Pakistan and like it as long as they are left alone. You also have urban versus rural. There’s nothing really united about Pakistan, except their hate of India.
Part of this is historical but more of it is the whole reason Pakistan exists (and Bangladesh too) is that the Muslims said, they’d never get a fair deal under Hindu India. Well if you look at India, which has a Muslim population nearly as large as Pakistan, they are in fact, getting a fair deal and even prospering. Well as much as you can in India.
When the richest Indian is Muslim and millions of other Indian Muslims are doing fine, it’s hard to justify why Pakistan is even in existence today.
Pakistanis thinks they got a raw deal from the West. Pakistan was used by the West as a buffer to Communism. Pakistan thought their alliance with the West, would be for all of their enemies, not just the Communist ones. When Pakistan has had wars with India, the West only paid nominal lip service in support.
Pakistan like North Korea has one advantage with their nukes. Location.
Pakistan is next door to over a billion Indians, in a very densely populated area. India is only one third as large as the US in area but it’s 75% larger in population.
You can throw nukes around without regard and due damage. (North Korea can do the same to Seoul)
Even if you could take out 95% of their nukes, the threat against India is huge.
BeaMyra, our local BJP/Shiv Sena activist.
This is not gym membership. this is a vaccine. You will always employ a vaccine.
can you translate that for me?
That’s not the entire line of reasoning. The reasoning is that Pakistan is a fractious country with nuclear weapons, and it’s better to try to retain ties, attempt to bring some stability, and attempt to eliminate the relationships with terrorists instead of leaving it to its own devices, where you can’t be sure what will happen.
The BJP and Shiv Sena are hard-line Indian political parties. Think along the lines of the UK BNP, only they want to get rid of everyone who isn’t Church of England instead of everyone who isn’t white.
They’ve advocated war with Pakistan on several occasions.