Re: Bush and Saudis play same old game

On Wed, 10 Aug 2005 08:30:53 -0400, "Hooda Gest" <Be@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

>>...Pakistan does have a fairly nifty air force as far as third world nations go...
>
>They also have to make sure they don't blow up a wedding party or some other
>legitimate gathering, don't they?

Ideally, sure. In practice it doesn't matter all that much - the
government's opponents would cry foul whether or not it was an
innocent gathering anyway.

>That takes intelligence on the ground in
>an area that is hostile to the Pakistani government.

That only makes the work difficult, not impossible.

>Did the government create the environment that allowed this area to be used
>this way? Sure, and with our assistance. These areas were expoited in arming
>the Afghan resistance back when the Russians were running the show in
>Afghanistan. Once established, how easy do you think it is to shut it down?

That territory was lawless long before our involvement with the
Afghan resistance.

>It isn't a simple thing.

I never meant to imply that it was.

>>...why travel to them via Pakistan instead of just going direct?
>
>Because then the destinations would be known outside a small group. And
>those destinations may change from time to time to avoid being found and
>destroyed.

On the flip side, that may make it easier for us to track them.

>Look at the support in this country of the Iraq War.

Yeah. That's largely due to Bush's inept handling of the war and
his failure to communicate its importance to the American public.

>How much harder might
>it be to control regions which have resisted control for centuries? Think of
>the popularity of doing something about those camps when your people have
>relatives in those regions, are being told (by the "bad guys") that the
>government is just extending its power over them (sort of like all this
>complaining about the Patriot Act and security in this country), and the
>terrorists are really freedom fighters waging a Holy War against "the Great
>Satan".

I appreciate the difficulties. That doesn't change the fact that
the Pakistani government needs to establish control over those areas.
Or at least allow us to operate there openly, perhaps under the cover
of 'hot pursuit'.
--
Chaos, panic, & disorder -- my work here is done.
.

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