Swat Valley, Himalayas.
Posted on 02/18/2009 10:30:32 PM PST by MyTwoCopperCoins
WASHINGTON: Troubled over Pakistan government's concession to the Taliban in the Swat Valley, a top Obama administration official has said the US would not like "bad guys" to get hold of any territory in the country.
"We are troubled and confused in the sense about what happened in Swat, because it is not an encouraging trend," Richard Holbrooke, the Special US Representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan told the PBS news channel in an interview.
Having just returned from South Asia wherein he met leaders of Pakistan, Afghanistan and India, Holbrooke said the Pakistanis are shocked at the fall of the picturesque Swat, which is after all a resort they all went to for vacations.
"So we have a situation in the area which is very serious. This is what we inherited," he said.
This is for the first time that an administration official has spoken clearly against the peace deal between the Taliban and the Pakistan government.
"Previous ceasefires have broken down and we do not want to see territory ceded to the bad guys. The people who took over Swat are very bad people," Holbrooke said.
The issue, he said, will be pursued during the next week's visit of a Pakistani delegation headed by Foreign Minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi.
US secretary of state Hillary Clinton had earlier said that Islamabad's efforts still needed to be "thoroughly understood" before making any comments.
So far the State Department has restrained itself from making any comment on the peace deal.
Holbrooke said this development would be pursued at a very high level when a Pakistani delegation headed by its foreign minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, visits Washington next week to hold discussions with the officials and participate in the Afghan review process.
"The military would be represented in the foreign minister Qureshi's delegation, and you can be sure that this issue would be pursued at very high levels in our dialogue next week," he said.
Asked if the Pakistani military and the ISI is willing to make commitments in the publicly announced goal of Pakistan's president to get rid of the Taliban, Holbrooke said it is too early to arrive at any conclusion.
"This is a very important question, which we are exploring in depth now. I have rarely seen an issue in Washington, which is so hotly disputed internally by experts and intelligence officials, is the one you raised," he said.
"Let me say for the purpose of this interview that we are engaged in very intense discussion with the military leadership of Pakistan and the ISI about this particular issue," he said.
Yup! Let 'em know your confused. That is a sure sign of strength and leadership.
I sure have great confidence in this administration. They sure make me feel secure!
NOT!
Terrorism 2: Just When You Thought It Was Safe To Live In The US
The pressitutes have been quiet about the hostage situation
They saw weakness on Iran, monkey see, monkey do
/
Weakness is a very poor attribute for a super power.
I seem to recall the Middle East used to taunt President Bush with placards of “Paper Tiger” on them (opps). What will they use now - “Tissue Bunny” perhaps?
According to tradition, Padmasambhava was incarnated as an eight-year-old child appearing in a lotus blossom floating in Lake Dhanakosha, in the kingdom of Uddiyana, traditionally identified with the Swat Valley of Ancient India in present-day Pakistan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padmasambhava
Ya think? Wallowing in your rudderless philosophical quagmire is no match for "bad guys" who have a philosophy and a singleness of purpose.
(Cue appropriate oxymoron Led Zeppelin's "Dazed & Confused". SHEESH.)
“...Swat...which is after all a resort they all went to for vacations.”
“...and we do not want to see territory ceded to the bad guys. The people who took over Swat are very bad people”
I’m not sure how bad they really are - I think they are just part of the over-worked masses in need of some R&R. I think some help with their mortgages on their little mountain retreats would go a long way in creating some goodwill with these folks.
Swat Valley, Himalayas.
Isn’t it amazing that this cancer upon the fabric of humanity
has spread to infest amazing areas like these ? And what do they bring to offer the human species in exchange for the space they occupy and the air they breath ? Nothing .... murder , intolerance , poverty , oppression of women & medieval thinking . And did I mention , they breed like fricken outback rabbits !
Indeed!
I’m guessing that that Buddha carving was defaced by the Mohammedans. That place was formerly Hindu, then Buddhist, and now, Muslim.
Everywhere it goes Islam tries to utterly eradicate Buddhism.
Since the beginning of Islam and from it’s first contact with
the cultures of India this has been their obsession .
They have not changed , nor will they .
Buddhists that can’t see this invite extinction .Should Islam
ever gain ascendancy . Of course maybe that’s what they want anyway?
Bush's fault, and in this case, he may be right. I believe that the current situation in Pakistan is the direct result of Bush's misguided policy of a couple years back of ramming through elections in Pakistan and the West Bank/Gaza, optimistically hoping that democracy would prevail with the masses, who would wisely elect pro-U.S. leaders and turn their backs on the Islamo-crazies. I distinctly remember President Bush telling Musharraf that if he was going to govern, then he needed to take his military uniform off and be a regular politician.
The State Department, under Rice, then put all of its eggs in the Benazir Bhutto basket. Problem is that Bhutto needlessly exposed herself and let herself get assasinated, leaving the U.S. with no ducks in the water in Islamabad. Pakistan quickly elected a very weak, Taliban-friendly government, while we got Hamas in Gaza, much to Bush's embarrassment and regret.
What we are now seeing in Pakistan is the ultimate fulfillment of that mistaken policy, with the weak Pakistani government just about ready to turn over the whole country and its nukes to the Taliban.
Musharraf was a corrupt, iron-fisted dictator, but he was our dictator, and he had the Pakistani army firmly under control. Pushing him aside in the belief that democracy would result in a more pro-U.S. Pakistan was just stupid, and now we are reaping what the Bush Administration has sewn.
Sad but true.
"...and we thought our election would have changed their attitude by now. After all, we're not Bush!"
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