Pakistani Violence and the Iranian Farce
Michael Haltman | October 30, 2009
The Pakistani Problem
(rediff News) “A government unable to control large parts of its territory, a military in disarray, loss of control over the nuclear assets, radical Islamists intent on acquiring WMDs — that’s the stuff nightmares are made of, at least for the West. And Pakistan’s current turmoil is causing jitters around the world precisely because the nightmarish scenario evoked above might just come to pass as the Talibanisation of the country drags it to the brink of collapse.”
On October 16, Pakistan’s political and military leaders held a crisis meeting to discuss the options for containing the dramatic rise in terrorist violence.
On the 29th, a car bomb detonated in a Pershwar market that killed at least 100 people. Those people were comprised mainly of woman and children doing their daily shopping. No one has claimed responsibility but Al-Qaeda or the Taliban may be a good bet.
During her visit in Pakistan, Hillary Clinton put forth the opinion that some Pakistani officials probably know where Al- Qaeda is holed up within the country, and she urged the government to do more in the way of hunting the terrorist group down.
In a discussion with editors in the city of Lahore, Clinton said, “Al-Qaeda has had safe haven in Pakistan since 2002, I find it hard to believe that nobody in your government knows where they are and couldn’t get them if they really wanted to. Maybe that’s the case; maybe they’re not gettable. I don’t know.”
This brings us to the discussion of the Pakistani military, and whether some in the institution have ties or allegiances other than to the people and the government of Pakistan. It has long been suspected that those with militant views within this nuclear power may hold positions relatively high up in the government. The question that this poses is obvious, particularly as Pakistan gets more involved in a search and destroy mission against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.
Who is in control? A militant military with nuclear access, or a moderate government friendly to the United States? As violence in the region grows along with uncertainty surrounding Afghanistan, the United States, India and the world wants to know.
It is good that Hillary Clinton seems to be taking a skeptical and a more hard-line stand, but is she on the same page as Obama and does she have any real influence?
The Iranian Farce Continues
As hard as this may be to believe, Iran has said that they want changes to the agreement that they had agreed to in principle with the IAEA. This will not only delay or destroy the plan to have Iran ship uranium out of the country, but delay or destroy the meetings between the 5 permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, Germany and Iran concerning its overall nuclear program.
Not that this should come as any surprise to anyone, but what is the master plan now? Threaten sanctions a little more, express disappointment, tell them they will pay for this? This is an incredible joke, and the joke is on the world.
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