interesting Mushie would say this right now... instead of what he's been saying for 5 years: "we need to stand with our very good friends the Americans against those dangerous Talibanis"
It seems his ambitions of being the new Ataturk are going up in smoke. I hope this means we now have a solid plan for securing those Muslim Nukes he's got.
A large part of the world was > this < close on 911. Pakistan should not feel special.
Wouldn't that be "up to the Stone Age?"
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
He says it like it was a bad thing. That explains the nature of their cooperation - just enough, and only when pressed. I hope we're still holding it over their heads. They saw what happened to their neighbors.
Pakistan has 160 million people if I recall correctly. That is a heckuva task to take on, but with 1.1 billion people helping out, it becomes a lot easier.
The timing of the release of this news is interesting, being as Pakistan has the bomb n'all. Wonder if the Iranian government is paying attention...
In reality Musharrif has to protect his ass from his own secret police ISF. He knows that they are really the power brokers in his country and have continuing ties to Al-Queda. If he appears to be too helpful to the US he's a dead man walking while at the same time he needs the US to be a buffer between his country and India. He's sort of screwed into standing up to us publicly and working with us behind the scenes.
Not too different than the French. Chirac throws his weight around publicly but know we have the goods on France about their dealing in the middle east.
Too bad they are the only one's on the list!
How could Musharraf be in on rehabilitating Armitage?
This is a tangled web indeed!
(Filed: 15/09/2001)
(Filed: 16/09/2001)
American officials have made clear that they expect Pakistan, which is the nearest point for allied forces to attack bin Laden's base in neighbouring Afghanistan, to co-operate fully in the allied operation.
In an uncompromising list of demands made to Pakistan's military leaders, US officials called for Islamabad to close training camps used by Islamic militants.
The US demanded that Pakistan shares all its intelligence on bin Laden and the Taliban, an organisation which it created in 1994 and is still funding. Pakistan should also make available airspace to US warplanes and take action to cut off funding to any group allied to bin Laden, and to close its border with Afghanistan.
If Pakistan failed to comply, US officials warned that the country ran the risk of being bombed in any future military action taken against Islamic terrorists. "We have been left with no doubt," said a senior Pakistan official.
"We can no longer be a friend of bin Laden and the US. And if we don't opt for Washington then they will not only cut off economic funding, including that from the International Monetary Fund, but also see us as a potential target."
As Pakistani officials considered the demands US forces started flying reinforcements to bases around the Middle East. Twelve B2 stealth bombers were on standby to fly to the British Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia.
This isn't actually new news. Armitage wasn't free-lancing either - the verbiage came directly from the White House (State Department people can leak, but they can't disobey a direct order to say some specific thing). What Musharraf then did was go to Beijing to ask the Chinese if they would back him if he stiff-armed Uncle Sam. The Chinese gave him the back of their hand, since they wanted no direct part in the Muslim world's covert jihad against Uncle Sam.
This is the meaning of Chinese cooperation in the War on Terror - they refused to align themselves with terror-sponsoring states. The Chinese will sell weapons (cash on the barrel) to them, but not actually fight their wars for them. This represents Chinese prudence rather than any love for Uncle Sam, of course. And Muslim fanatics are being silly when they attempt to use China to fight their enemies - only Uncle Sam is naive enough to fight other people's battles in their behalf.
Oh well, can't have it all, I suppose.
I should sure hope we did that. We certainly could have nuked them with minimal international protest after 9/11.
Well, it worked, didn't it?
This is not surprising. I remember as the US was trying to gain an alliance with other key nations against Afghanistan, we were all speculating that the US was 'making an offer that they could not refuse' to Pakistan.
I think it went down like this:
We were going to attck Afghanistan no matter what. Pakistan could either help us, or, we would not be responsible for US coalition attacks on Pakistani soil in pursuit of the murderous bastards. If Pakistan took up arms, then we would bomb the snot out of them.
Boy, that sounds like uncharacteristically tough talk for the State Department pussies......
Making allies, one bomb threat at a time.
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Hey, it worked. Threats are always better than expanding the war, if we can be that fortunate.
Really proves Bush's point: either you're with us, or you're with the terrorists. How long will the nations halt between two opinions? Choose you this day whom you will stand with.
"One has to think and take actions in the interest of the nation, and that's what I did," Musharraf said about the cooperation extended by Pakistan."
Yeah, I guess *chuckle* one would.