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| India-Pakistan |
| US advised not to push Pakistan too far |
| 2007-03-16 |
| “Picking a fight with old, loyal ally Pakistan is both morally wrong and fraught with untold dangers. The US has forgotten how it forced another compliant military ruler, Egypt’s Anwar Sadat, into policies his people hated,” writes noted Canadian journalist and commentator Eric Margolis. A blackbelt moonbat? This is the best Interservices Public Relations can come up with? In a commentary on a liberal blog, Lew Rockwell, Margolis writes that the fast-deteriorating situation in the region is provoking “furious finger-pointing”. Margolis on Lew Rockwell. Now that's moonbat quality! Washington and NATO are angrily blaming Pakistan for sheltering and abetting Taliban and its allies. According to Margolis, Cheney went on to Pakistan to “threaten” President Pervez Musharraf with a cut-off of US aid - and perhaps much worse - if he did not crack down further on Pashtun tribesmen who were aiding Taliban and other Pashtun and nationalist resistance groups. The western powers are following India’s lead over Kashmir by accusing Pakistan of “cross-border terrorism”. In the 1980’s and 1990’s, Margolis recalls exploring the tribal agencies of Waziristan, Khyber, Mohmand, Orakzai, and Malakand. “Their warlike, fiercely independent tribes joined Pakistan in 1947 under constitutional guarantee of total autonomy that excluded government soldiers from the tribal agencies. Intense US pressure forced Musharraf to violate Pakistan’s constitution by sending troops into the tribal territories,” he adds. According to Margolis, many Pakistanis oppose the US occupation of Afghanistan, support the Taliban and think better of Osama Bin Laden than George Bush. “Musharraf is thus caught between Washington’s growing demands and his own people, who increasingly accuse him of being an American tool. Washington simply does not understand it has pushed the isolated, unpopular Musharraf too far already. If he is blown up or overthrown, Pakistan and its 40-60 nuclear weapons, could turn into an even bigger and more dangerous hotbed of anti-western activity. . . Meanwhile, Washington is increasingly blaming its Afghanistan fiasco on whipping boy Pakistan, just as the Vietnam defeat was blamed on infiltration from Cambodia and Laos.” |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #9 Not giving 'em 1.5 billion is part of the "pushing too far", bigjim-ky. |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2007-03-16 14:59 |
| #8 Is this before or after we gave them $750 million to deal with the tribal areas? |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2007-03-16 12:03 |
| #7 Excalibur, I like the way you think. |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2007-03-16 11:40 |
| #6 Yeah, Lou Rockwell always gets the most prestigious guests. Maybe he ought to move to Pakistan, as they seem really impressed with him. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2007-03-16 09:14 |
| #5 Or we could just nuke Pakistan into a piece of glass. The reflective albedo thus created would also have a cooling effect on the global environment thereby creating a policy "twofer". |
| Posted by: Excalibur 2007-03-16 08:59 |
| #4 Margolis owned Jamieson Laboratories, the largest Vitamin and health food supplement manufacturer in Canada. He writes breathless stuff about the "handsome" and "dark eyed" pashtun and punjabi soldiers he meets on his visits to Pakistani military facilities. He defends his friends... THE BIG LIE ABOUT `ISLAMIC FASCISM' Eric S. Margolis 28 August 2006 The latest big lie unveiled by Washington's neoconservatives are the poisonous terms, `Islamo-Fascists' and `Islamic Fascists ' . They are the new, hot buzzwords among America's far right and Christian fundamentalists. President George W. Bush made a point last week of using `Islamofacists' when recently speaking of Hezbullah and Hamas both, by the way, democratically elected parties. A Canadian government minister from the Conservative Party compared Lebanon's Hezbullah to Nazi Germany. The term `Islamofascist' is utterly without meaning, but packed with emotional explosives. It is a propaganda creation worthy Dr . Goebbles, and the latest expression of the big lie technique being used by neocons in Washington's propaganda war against its enemies in the Muslim World. |
| Posted by: John Frum 2007-03-16 06:26 |
| #3 Perv is playing a double game mainly as he dosent want a Indian friendly government on both sides. A major factor continues to be Saudi funding of Islamist groups within Pakistan that needs to be tackled!!!! |
| Posted by: Ebbolump Glomotle9608 2007-03-16 06:22 |
| #2 I have to agree with this to some degree. Pakistan is a critical nexus of Islamofascist activity and it possesses nuclear weapons. Although Musharraf can at best be deemed an ally of convenience, we can not afford the risk of having him replaced by a ruler who more accurately represents Pakistan's pro-jihadist sympathies. Until we either leave Iraq or pacify it, we will have to be content with hoping the status quo holds in such places. |
| Posted by: Jegum the Great3985 2007-03-16 03:16 |
| #1 Doesn't Margolis have something better to do with his time then create more trouble? |
| Posted by: 3dc 2007-03-16 00:27 |