You have commented 338 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
India-Pakistan
Cameron Munter blasts US 'callousness' on Pakistan
2013-02-14
[Dawn] Former US ambassador to Islamabad Cameron Munter on Wednesday criticised Washington's "callousness" over the killing of Pak troops as he called for both nations to rethink how they see each other.

Munter served as ambassador during some of the most difficult times of the turbulent US-Pakistain relationship including the slaying of the late Osama bin Laden
... who is now sometimes referred to as Mister Bones...
and a US border raid that killed 24 Pak troops in November 2011.

Cameron Munter, who resigned last year, said that the United States had shown a lack of generosity over the deaths of the 24 troops. Pakistain shut down NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions...
supply routes into Afghanistan until the United States apologized seven months later.

"The fact that we were unable to say that we were sorry until July cost our country literally billions of dollars," Munter said, pointing to the costly shift to sending supplies for the Afghan war via Central Asia.

"But worse than that, it showed a kind of callousness that makes it so difficult simply to begin to talk about those things, that I've always tried to stress, that we have in common," he said at the Atlantic Council, a think tank.

Munter steadfastly denied conspiracy theories and said the deaths near the Afghan border were a case of mistaken identity. Munter said that US-led forces "obliterated" the soldiers by firing from an AC-130, a powerful gunship.

"If you don't have that in common -- that you're sorry when there is nothing left of the bodies of 24 of your boys -- then it's very hard for many people, especially those who want a relationship with us... to defend us to their peers," Munter said.

The border attack took place as Willard Mitt Romney
...former governor of Massachussetts, the Publican nominee for president in 2012. He is the son of the former governor of Michigan, George Romney, who himself ran for president after saving American Motors from failure, though not permanently. Romney has a record as a successful businessman, heading Bain Capital, and he rescued the 2002 Winter Olympics from the midst of bribery and mismanagement scandals....
and other Republicans seeking the White House were attacking President Barack Obama
Republicans can come along for the ride, but they've got to sit in the back...
for allegedly being too apologetic about the United States.

Munter pointed to comments by then candidate Newt Gingrich
...former Speaker of the House, author of the Contract with America. Gingrich gave the country welfare reform and a balanced budget and the Publicans a landslide House victory in 1994. On the downside, he has a roving eye and a loose fly, he's opinionated, and he's abrasive despite his ability to work with the other side of the political aisle...
. In 2011, the former House speaker berated Pakistain over the presence of bin Laden despite the billions of dollars in US aid to Islamabad, saying: "How stupid do you think we are?"

"If we have that kind of dismissive attitude -- that we can give people money and they're going to love us... and somehow that means they're going to think the way we think -- that's equally stupid," Munter said.
Posted by:Fred

#4  Callous?

Try this on for size:

Build a very high wall completely around the country, cut off all air, sea, and road travel for two years, provide lots of ammunition and explosives, lock the door and walk away.

Then you agree to talk with the survivors AFTER they give up all of their dangerous toys.

The place is a freaking pesthole of anarchy Munter, if we were really callous we'd freaking nuke the whole danged thing.
Posted by: Bill Clinton   2013-02-14 11:29  

#3  Cameron's gone native

That does seem to be a common problem at State.
Posted by: Pappy   2013-02-14 11:04  

#2  Cameron's gone native. Perhaps he should change citizenship
Posted by: Frank G   2013-02-14 09:53  

#1  Cameron Munter blasts US 'callousness' on Pakistan

Yup, you try to kill us we get callous, happens every time.
Posted by: Redneck Jim   2013-02-14 06:50  

00:00