[...] But more important, it is finally dawning on some in Washington--if not exactly those packing their bags and shredding their files in the Bush White House--that Pakistan has played us for fools ever since September 11, 2001.
The world has become a more dangerous place because the Bush Administration took its eye off this particular ball in order to fight the war of choice in Iraq. It is up to the President-elect to let the Pakistanis know that the days of American carelessness are over. It is up to the Pakistanis to make clear that they truly want to be our ally in the struggle against violent Islamic extremism.
We've sent Pakistan $billions to be our friend in the phony War On Terror, most of which has been spent to make Pakistan stronger militarily in their never-ending Mexican standoff with India, or to strengthen the very terrorist groups we're supposed to be fighting against.
President Obama needs to make it crystal clear to the Paki military and ISI that the taps are going to be turned off if they don't start spending it the way we want them to. I guess we should tell their nominal government as well. If no-money-without-provisos works with the U.S. automakers, and the jury's still out on that, maybe it'll work on Pakistan too.
Our government needs to learn a very basic lesson, simple enough that even Joe Klein got it: he who pays the piper calls the tune.
This thought just came to me, and I'm not real proud of it, but I'll throw it out there anyway and I'm sure I'll hear about it: maybe it's time we allied with India and whoever in the region's up for it and just beat the shit out of Pakistan. Something on the order of getting a mule's attention with a 2x4 upside the head.
No comments:
Post a Comment