[ketelone]

Musharraf's promise
Western leaders tout Musharraf's speech to Pakistanis a couple of days after September 11, in which he justified his decision to join the US side against jihadis. But few seem to recall that Musharraf made another less publicized speech on September 19, 2001 in Urdu, Pakistan's national language, in which he made it clear that he would do everything within his power to make sure that the Taliban emerged unharmed in the "war on terror". While the English-language speech was for Western consumption, the Urdu speech was meant to assuage his countrymen regarding the Taliban. Whether the US wants to admit it or not, it is patent now that Musharraf has kept that particular promise to protect the Taliban.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/GG19Ag03.html

You might want to rethink what youre saying. Musharraf is a double dealer. All he wants is American arms, support for his dictatorship, and money. Hes not putting his rule on the line for the US. If it wasnt for the US, hed have been overthrown long ago anyway.

Else, hes a committed Taleban supporter, at least from all the action that has been taken against the Taleban so far. Indeed, the Pakistani ISI ceratd the Taleban. Hamid Karzai is going blue in the face saying Pakistan is supporting the insurgency in Afghanistan, but noone seems to be listening.

[Obadiah]

And so it is hard to tell. Is Musharraf a double dealer? Or is he playing to both galleries because he walks a fine line? Hard to know. You are persuasive, but I remain not totally convinced. Perhaps I'm a naive optimist.

[SampleMan]

I agree that Pakistan is not our friend, but that doesn't mean the time is right to make them an open enemy.

At this point its probably best to put what pressure we can on Musharraf, and continue to create a better environment for round two of this war. Northern Pakistan is worse than probably any other place on earth as an Islamic nutjob haven, but taking that region isn't exactly the best thing right now.

In the long run, I'd like to see these folks go back to being backwards, mountain hermits that won't marry a girl outside of the family. I think taking the Arab element out of the mix might just do that.

If not, and feet on the ground become absolutely required. I'd prefer they be Indian feet. If we pull all support from Pakistan and give India anti-missile capability and other support, Pakistan would be in a very, very bad way.