Impeach him. Impeach him now.
Sep. 8th, 2006 08:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elfsSo, we've lost the war in Afghanistan.
In a treaty that will "end five years of border fighting," Pakistan has signed a peace deal with the Taliban, giving the Taliban complete and unfettered authority over the Pakistani province of North Waziristan. The Pakistani military was taking a terrible beating at the hands of the Taliban and this accord is regarded as a "face saving retreat" by the Pakistan government. The head of the Pakistani military said that if Bin Laden is in North Waziristan, he will not be taken into custody "as long as he is behaving as a peaceful citizen."
So, here's where we are, Mr. Bush: five years after 9/11, what seemed like a successful military prosecution of the terrorist organization that housed and safetied public enemy #1 was left to drift by the draining of troops to a second war, a war of choice with no clear objective. In that gap, Al Qaeda and the Taliban found safe haven in a Pakistani province they have now completely secured.
And unlike Afghanistan, we dare not send troops into Waziristan. It's Pakistani territory all the same, and if we challenge Pakistani sovereignty the government of Pervez Musharraf will collapse. Any following government will be more solidly Islamic, probably Shia', and will have access to fifteen working nuclear warheads and the missles to deliver them, plus the technology needed to build more. If there's one thing the Islamic tradition has going for it, it's patience.
So, here's where we are, Mr. Bush: even more unstable, insecure, and tragically unprepared. Bin Laden is a piker in the course of history: he's killed a few thousand Americans, making his success insignificant compared to the casualty counts of WW1, WW2, the internal brutality of the Soviet Union, or even the American Civil War, and yet we casually compare him to the worst villians of all four. Thanks to our administration's incompetence, he may yet acheive his dream of infliciting real harm.
In a treaty that will "end five years of border fighting," Pakistan has signed a peace deal with the Taliban, giving the Taliban complete and unfettered authority over the Pakistani province of North Waziristan. The Pakistani military was taking a terrible beating at the hands of the Taliban and this accord is regarded as a "face saving retreat" by the Pakistan government. The head of the Pakistani military said that if Bin Laden is in North Waziristan, he will not be taken into custody "as long as he is behaving as a peaceful citizen."
So, here's where we are, Mr. Bush: five years after 9/11, what seemed like a successful military prosecution of the terrorist organization that housed and safetied public enemy #1 was left to drift by the draining of troops to a second war, a war of choice with no clear objective. In that gap, Al Qaeda and the Taliban found safe haven in a Pakistani province they have now completely secured.
And unlike Afghanistan, we dare not send troops into Waziristan. It's Pakistani territory all the same, and if we challenge Pakistani sovereignty the government of Pervez Musharraf will collapse. Any following government will be more solidly Islamic, probably Shia', and will have access to fifteen working nuclear warheads and the missles to deliver them, plus the technology needed to build more. If there's one thing the Islamic tradition has going for it, it's patience.
So, here's where we are, Mr. Bush: even more unstable, insecure, and tragically unprepared. Bin Laden is a piker in the course of history: he's killed a few thousand Americans, making his success insignificant compared to the casualty counts of WW1, WW2, the internal brutality of the Soviet Union, or even the American Civil War, and yet we casually compare him to the worst villians of all four. Thanks to our administration's incompetence, he may yet acheive his dream of infliciting real harm.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-11 07:42 am (UTC)We would have accepted the Iraq war had it gone through the UN. Now it got to the point where the resurrected sci fi series Dr Who had the line from a fictional Prime Minister on the phone "No Mr President, we are not going to war over this." in a rather tired voice. Again this is quite something given that Dr Who is made by the BBC, which is the next best thing to a public service.