War and peace, Pakistani edition
Over the weekend, a string of savage conflicts escalated.
The war between Obama’s critics and supporters raged on as conservatives outdid themselves with apoplectic and sometimes hypocritical reactions to the Nobel Peace Prize. The dispute between the Obama administration and its formerly enthusiastic supporters in the gay community erupted in the streets during the big gay rights march on Sunday, when some advocates bashed Obama for moving so slowly on a number of issues, including don’t ask, don’t tell.
But the most important escalation occurred not in Washington but in Pakistan, where the Taliban took credit for a series of bombings and attacks that showed how much pressure it is able to put on the Pakistani government. That included a bold attack on the military headquarters in Rawalpindi. Today, a suicide bomber struck and killed dozens of people.
Why does that matter? It matters because members of the Pakistani intelligence forces have always been close to the Taliban; some of those same intelligence officials have access to Pakistani’s nuclear bomb-making apparatus. The very last thing the world needs is the Taliban with nukes.
The attacks help explain why — all the neo-con caterwauling notwithstanding — the Obama adminsitration can’t afford to concentrate its military and intelligence capabilities on Afghanistan alone. Even if we could pacify Afghanistan with 40,000 more troops (we can’t) or 140,000 more troops (still can’t), it wouldn’t protect against us homicidal jihadists.
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26 comments Add your comment
The REAL GodHatesTrash, Superstar
October 12th, 2009
8:38 am
It’s sad that a couple of hundred thousand American soldiers are being pinned down in Iraq and Afghanistan fighting a few hundred well-trained Al Qaeda operatives. And every civilian death our military is involved in just strengthens their cause. Our military ‘leadership’ is a bunch of pencil-pushing buffoons.
Turd Ferguson
October 12th, 2009
9:12 am
I thought the Taliban were our friends and thus friends of Pakistan. Hmmm…didnt Obobo float the idea of Taliban being a legitimate govt or sumpin like that.
HMMMM….could our Campaigner In Chief have been wrong?
Donovan
October 12th, 2009
9:25 am
Gee…thanks again to our boot licking commie journalist for her inspiring sit-rep on the Taliban. Her inexperienced lover-in-chief/community organizer hasn’t a clue on fighting “his” Afghan war, but Comrade Tucker is right there providing support and visionary battle advice.
ThePlainTruth
October 12th, 2009
9:26 am
Cynthia, You are right that Pakistan is a huge problem. I don’t know if there really is a good answer but pulling out of Afghanistan and coming home surely isn’t it. I think Obama must increase the levels by 40,000 as his hand picked General requests. He also needs to turn up the heat on Pakistan (which he said he would do in the campaign and was chided by Hillary), doing whatever it takes to defeat the Taliban. They only understand power and force. Trying to reason or talk to these people is futile. That is the sad reality. Now Mr. President, please do what needs to be done before its too late.
Spartann
October 12th, 2009
10:06 am
From War on Terror , to now being called an Over Seas Contingency…. A Rose is a Rose is a Rose…Me think NOT …..This administration wants to engage our enemies by inviting them for a chat and a mocha latte…….1st Carter, now the new Mambie Pambie in chief … When will Washington untie our boy’s hands and let them FIGHT to WIn 4 REAL ????
TnGelding
October 12th, 2009
10:09 am
Turd Ferguson
October 12th, 2009
9:12 am
Friends, when did he say that? They were just never a threat to the USA. Could’ve been, but probably not. He’s talking about once the fighting ends and recociliation begins. The Taliban will be one of the parties at the table. There are too many of them to ignore.
TnGelding
October 12th, 2009
10:10 am
Donovan
October 12th, 2009
9:25 am
And what would your solution be? It will be hard to overcome the initial mistake.
jconservative
October 12th, 2009
10:10 am
Turd Ferguson October 12th, 2009 9:12 am
“I thought the Taliban were our friends and thus friends of Pakistan.”
Where did you get a wild idea like this?
The Bush administration did float the idea of maybe buying off the Taliban leaders with cash & favors to gain their support. But they never followed up & the Obama administration has not followed up.
McChrystal seems to believe it just might work.
And some of the Pakistani military & secret service are “under the rug” supporters of the Pakistani version of the Taliban for purely personal religious reasons.
You have the Taliban. They stand by themselves.
You have Al Qaeda. They stand by themselves. But they did buy off the Taliban for a hiding place in Afghanistan. That’s where the Bush administration got the idea.
The problem with buying someone off is that they may just decide to take the payoff from both sides.
TnGelding
October 12th, 2009
10:13 am
The REAL GodHatesTrash, Superstar
October 12th, 2009
8:38 am
Well, it would be hard to dispute that. Certainly haven’t made much progress in 8 years. But hey, it’s all the rookie’s fault.
Joan
October 12th, 2009
10:14 am
Name calling again–”apoplectic and hypocritical”. Maybe you meant “hypercritical”? Anyway, liberals are great at name calling when they have no real facts in their favor. And what are you doing now? Justifying the war? I thought you liberals elected Obama to draw down the troops and get us out of there? But now that he hasn’t you have to figure out a way to make it all right. I am a conservative, but I would rather see the troops at home fighting the war on our economy here that has been launched by the illegals.
TnGelding
October 12th, 2009
10:19 am
ThePlainTruth
October 12th, 2009
9:26 am
Increasing the number of troops would only increase the number of casualties, unless a massive number were available (240,000?). Pakistan is finally committed, as evidenced by the hostage rescue.
What They Are Saying: 10.12.09 | AnnotatedOpinions.com
October 12th, 2009
10:23 am
[...] War and peace, Pakistani edition [Atlanta Journal-Constitution] [...]
TnGelding
October 12th, 2009
10:24 am
Joan
October 12th, 2009
10:14 am
Obama always said the fight was in Afghanistan, but is now considering if it, and al Qaeda, hasn’t moved to Pakistan. I agree, hypo- and hyper- apply in this case.
TnGelding
October 12th, 2009
10:30 am
From what I’ve heard, al Qaeda has pretty much left Afghanistan, and I’ve said all along I ain’t got no quarrel with no Taliban. It looks like Obama doesn’t either. The citizens have to find the courage to identify the potential suicide/homicide bombers. Are they operating in a vacuum?
Jimmy62
October 12th, 2009
10:54 am
Pakistan could be a problem, so let’s pull more troops out of the area and leave ourselves weakened, and looking like we have no interest in getting rid of the Taliban.
Where did you get your military experience, Cynthia? Walmart?
Just because
October 12th, 2009
11:38 am
Isn’t it interesting when the liberals (i.e., TnGelding) can’t defend their stance on issues (and their leader) . . then they try to turn it around and say . . what is your solution? If they had half a brian and an open mind . . . we keep telling them but they only have one track mind and can’t seem to get beyond that.
Degneration X (HHH and HBK)
October 12th, 2009
11:53 am
All HHH and I are saying is give Peace a chance….
Degneration X (HHH and HBK)
October 12th, 2009
11:54 am
Why would someone want half a Brian? That doesn’t make any sense. The thing about an open mind is if you lean over, you lose your mind.
Degneration X (HHH and HBK)
October 12th, 2009
12:00 pm
By jihadists, do you mean fanatical Islamo-facists attempting to kill Christians? So the crusades are back on? Why do you choose to use this term that refers to religous war? And they not simply the lunatic fringe Islamo-facist? The term makes them Martyrs and not the simple fools that they are. Crazy muslims killiing for spite…
Leroy Jethro Gibbs
October 12th, 2009
12:51 pm
Gimme a sit rep, McGee. I’ve gotta brief the director and sec nav in MTAC.
TnGelding
October 12th, 2009
12:56 pm
Just because
October 12th, 2009
11:38 am
I was just saying it is quite a quandary. We need to back Obama whatever he decides. The “solution” is that unknown.
TnGelding
October 12th, 2009
1:06 pm
Jimmy62
October 12th, 2009
10:54 am
Where did she say anything about pulling troops out of the area? She said it was futile to send more troops into Afghanistan and the threat of nukes falling into the hands of the Taliban in Pakistan is the bigger problem at this juncture and needs to be addressed.
Tom Middleton
October 12th, 2009
6:43 pm
Cynthia, I think it’s clear at this point that the United States cannot be responsible alone for the defense of the Free World, simply because we used to be a superpower. It should be obvious by now that we’re NOT anymore, even though everyone else is still hanging on the traditional belief that we need to take care of them like always.
But this “them” is now in danger of completely losing this best defense they ever had, due directly to an overextension of our resources and weakening military. And then were will they be, alone and having to defend themselves? Good luck, friends!
So it’s time NOW for the rest of the Free World to get much more involved in their defense than they’ve been willing to so far. (Yes, NATO is in Afghanistan with us, but not nearly to the degree needed for success.)
And with President Obama now more popular than ever in Europe and elsewhere, not to mention the Nobel Peace Prize sitting fresh on his desk, I think it’s finally time for him to stop asking and start DEMANDING more Free World participation in all of our defense.
With increased numbers will come increased resources, support, and options as we go, an increasing number of which will undoubtedly be non-violent. This will make it possible to not only start defending what’s good about the world the right way for a change, but continually add to our democratic alliance as we help liberate nation after nation (because they keep asking us to and helping), and all growing stronger together.
We finally have an excellent world-class leader in our President Obama, and he needs to start doing more than just giving great speeches. When it comes to the rest of the world, he’s got ‘em where he wants ‘em. Now it’s time to point ‘em in the right direction and get ‘em busy doing what we all should know by now they MUST help us do.
“We can’t” is never going to get us anywhere, Cynthia, but the “Yes We Can” of the primaries, the general, and on occasion now, is going to save the day for us, the rest of the Free World, and those others in the world who want to be free. Take that, Osama bin Laden, you stupid idiot!
TnGelding
October 12th, 2009
8:18 pm
Tom Middleton
October 12th, 2009
6:43 pm
Defend themselves from whom?
I’m not sure Obama is fully engaged. I’d like to see a lot more Clinton and a lot less Bush in his work habit. Is Rahm handling too much?
It was a law enforcement problem with a covert role for the military, as I’ve stated before. 9/11 happened because the airlines were more concerned with on-time departures than terrorists. If the Bush admnistration had warned them of an increased danger they might not have boarded the ones the computer flagged that were pulled aside for questioning. So what was Congress’ response? Federalize the baggage screeners, who did nothing wrong!
We need to get OBL and get out as gracefully as possible. We can’t win. The best we can hope for is stalemate. I wonder if they fear capturing or killing him will awaken the sleeper cells to unleash their mayhem?
Any government we leave in Iraq or Afghanistan won’t last 6 weeks. I guess that’s why Bush didn’t plan on leaving.
Tom Middleton
October 12th, 2009
10:48 pm
TN: Defend themselves from whom?
Uh, Al Qaeda and anyone else who wants to see America and the rest of the free world destroyed, dead, and gone for good?
I’m sure you’ve noticed but this “War on Terror” that started on 9/11 is all about ideology, and we’ll never win such a war by abandoning what we believe in, in favor of something else, like a dictatorship. That was the Bush/Cheney approach and you can easily see where that got us – in a deep, deep hole we’re still trying to climb out of and will be for some time.
As Americans and believers in democracy, there’s only one way to win a war of ideologies and that’s to be who we say we are here and home and with our dealings with everyone else. And we’ll never beat a vicious enemy like Al Qaeda by trying to become who Osama bin Laden wants us to be as fast as we possibly can – an enemy to the world. Like I said, that didn’t work!
TN, there’s a reason why everyone wants to be an American and keeps trying to come here: They want to be free like us, and some actually make it. Unfortunately, the vast majority are told to “get back home where they belong,” so they go and grow angry over our double standard.
And when they try to rebel against their own governments and transform them into something more representative of who they want to be, since they can’t be Americans, they find out that America is supporting those governments in the name of American interests and security, and they get even angrier.
TN, guess who absolutely loves it when there are people in the world who get that angry? Al Qaeda and all the others who want to rule the world with their oppressive, backward-thinking ideologies get absolutely ecstatic.
So when I say that we need a democratic alliance devoted to helping other people become free right where they are, I mean that this is the only way we’ll ever convince all the have-nots of the world that we don’t think we’re better than they every time we send them back. That’s what they think, you know?
And having such an alliance of like-minded, freedom-oriented nations all working together to help them be free right where they are is the only way we’ll ever permanently secure American interests and the interests of all the rest, and ultimately bring that long-lasting but elusive peace to the world everybody keeps saying they want.
It’s kind of a no-brainer, TN, for we can’t bring everyone here. Neither can we continuing making all those who want to come here but can’t, so angry that they join up with terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda to help bring us down.
The question for every American and member of the Free World is this: Do we want an end to this terrorist insanity in a way that brings freedom and peace to all of us, or do we want to continue feeding the strategy of the likes of bin Laden and his deputy and run the dire risk of losing everything we say we love so dearly.
We haven’t grown stronger since 9/11, TN. We are weaker for sure, so I know my easy answer. What’s yours?
Randall W. Capps
October 20th, 2009
5:54 pm
I can’t believe that C. Tucker actually wrote something that she didn’t cut and paste? Too good to be true? Too bad it really doesn’t say anything but blah, blah, blah. Cyth, go back to cut and paste, at least in the cut and paste sections, it’s complete sentences in a coherent style.