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>>in an election that was manipulated to help elect people who support Musharraf.

But it didn't work. The jihadis are in power in the very provinces that the US needs to search.

Comparing Frenchmen to Pakistanis is a stretch, even for FR.

And has Musharraf really done what we want? The evidence is overwhelming that he hasn't. Exhibit A - Recent shipments August 2002 of unknown materials to North Korea.
Exhibit B - Agreements to supply WMD to Saudi Arabia.

They're NEVER going to turn into Turkey. They've had 50 plus years to do that and haven't nothwithstanding being a valued ally of the US during the ColdWar.

But Bochgrave is really thumping on Pakistan. Every little bit helps.

And of course, lest we forget just how naive, wimpy, begging and pathetic our overtures to "we're really the linchpin of the Trans-Asian Axis but pretending to be your long lost cousin" Pakistan have been, on 9/10/2001, Pakistan were licking Jiang Zemin's boots. On 9/11/2001 they were still licking his boots. As they were on 9/12/2001. And on 12/10/2002? Well, they are no longer licking Jiang's boots, now, they are licking Hu Jintao's boots. They are still as they have been since the late 1980s, a PRC satellite. Sometime between when we befriended the Pakistan of the 1950s as part of "the Northern Tier" and now, they stopped acting in the best interests of the West but we were asleep at the wheel. We were also aspleep at the wheel, when, some 15 years after ping-pong diplomacy, the PRC started to build the Trans-Asian Axis. Similarly, when India ditched Socialism last decade, we must have not gotten the memo. Then would have been the time to start to insert ourselves and wean India away from the Russians. Doh! And then, when India literally showed up at the US' door on 9/12 saying "let's partner. Use our ports and airfields. We are in this together" we gave a shoulder at measured at a temperature of absolute zero. And now, in the past week, is it any wonder that Putin jumps first to Beijing and then New Delhi? DOH!!! The USA are the kid who gets sucker punched repeatedly when it comes to our geopolitical acumen. When will we grow up and get a clue?