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| India-Pakistan |
| Pakistan Could Be Next Target After Iraq: Musharraf |
| 2003-01-20 |
| This is a neat piece of misrepresentation. The headline's the same as it was in the original Pak press article â I believe it was NNI â a couple days ago. The content isn't quite an exact match for the headline, though... Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf said there was an âimpending dangerâ of Pakistan becoming a target of war for âWestern forcesâ after the Iraq crisis. Oh, horrors! Lemme get my jihad stuff... Addressing a meeting of businessmen and industrialists in Lahore on Saturday, January 19, Musharraf said it was being speculated that Pakistan would become the target of âwestern forcesâ after the Iraq crisis and there were chances of such an eventuality. âWe will have to work on our own to stave off the danger. Nobody will come to our rescue, not even the Islamic world. We will have to depend on our muscleâ, Musharraf was quoted as saying by the Indian daily Hindustan Times on Sunday, January 19. January 19th seems to have been a long day... The statement is seen here as an âextraordinary observationâ as he spoke not only of crisis similar to Iraq, but even expressed doubts about âwestern forcesâ. Yeah. Extraordinary. He's smart enough to realize that the Merkins are being polite because we need to see the Qaeda boyz with toe tags, not because we think the Paks are neat. You only get customers when you've got something to sell, and you can only get away with being snotty if people can't buy it anywhere else... On the Taliban and Al-Qaeda regrouping, Musharraf said âsome foreigners in Pakistan are harming U.S. interests here though we take them as brothers.â Maybe you should stop embracing them? âMuslims are suffering everywhere but in the hour of the need no one would help us because everyone has his own interests. We will have to be a very moderate county not with a confrontationist approach but with liberal mind.â That would be a good idea. It'd also be an unusual idead for Pakland, because that "confrontationist approach" is the hallmark of political thinking there: Perv vs. India, Qazi vs. Perv, jihadis vs. Merkins, you name it. They're a nation of Pashtuns. The firm backing given to Bush by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has allowed Islamabad to make a spectacular return to U.S. grace as a strategic ally. Its past support for the Taliban and the continuing presence in Pakistan of powerful radical movements, including Al-Qaeda members, leave lingering suspicions, however. Its present support for the Talibs, and its meddling — either officially or through the fundo parties — in Afghanistan isn't helping to allay those suspicions, either. The Paks' "spectacular return to U.S. grace" could very well be followed by an equally spectacular departure. They have the chance to clean up their own house, and they're not taking it. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #2 What he needs to do is Beef up his forces along the afghan border and stop the incursions. Or else invite the Merkins in to help clean house. |
| Posted by: Ptah 2003-01-21 10:32:43 |
| #1 It looks to me as if Musharraf is just trying to beat some of the obvious facts into the local donkeys. What good is "fighting to the last man" if you arent going to win? Heck, they wouldnt even place or show. A quick devastating win in Iraq would help support his case nicely. |
| Posted by: flash91 2003-01-20 11:33:27 |