It's all about Pakistan now

[Grace62]

cbelt3 wrote:
Uhm... you're kind of over-empiricising things here, and completely missing the 30 year history of Al Quaeda.

Let's go for the facts.

Fact 1- GW went into Iraq for pride. No real question about it.

Fact 2- Afghanistan under the Taliban was Al Quaeda HQ. Just ask Bill Clinton why he fired a few cruise missiles in there... to try to get Osama bin Laden.

Fact 3- The northern frontier of Pakistan has always been a quasi-separate nation.

Fact 4- Our relationship with Pakistan has always been difficult. The relationship began primarily as a realpolitik cold war approach to controlling Soviet influence in India. Once the Soviets went into Afhanistan, the mohajir (Afghan refugee) situation made Pakistani politics a huge mess.. and it has not recovered.

Fact 5- The whole point may be moot, since the Pakistanis are continuing to get closer militarily to the Chinese. The same Chinese who helped them develop nuclear weapons and ICBM capability. I know this. I was there, cholly..

So yeah. Go ahead and pull away from the military dictatorship controlling that dog's breakfast of a country. You'll really enjoy a Jihadist country with nukes.

I'm talking about the post 9/11 world, and the future. I'm not saying pull away from Pakistan, I'm saying take a much, much closer look at what's happening there than we have in the past. Our focus has been wrong. That's what I'm saying.