Henry Mortimer Durand takes a lot of hits in modern days. The line he negotiated between the government of Afghan Amir Abdur Rahman Khan and the British Raj in India split the Pashtun people in two, leaving one ungovernable half in Pakistan, and their equally tempestuous cousins in Afghanistan.
Pashtuns here, and Pashtuns there, but when the Punjabis take a hit – the Pakistani army is both traditionally and predominately Punjabi – there are apparently few tears shed on the Aghan side of the border:
The Afghan police general watched on television as Pakistani soldiers solemnly saluted the coffins of 24 of their comrades who were killed in a U.S. military airstrike Saturday.
The general stood up in disgust. “That’s the best thing America has done in 10 years here,” he said.
While U.S. officials from the war zone to the White House offered contrite condolences to the families of the dead and scrambled to repair the tattered relationship with Pakistan, Afghan officials have taken a tougher line. Frustrated by a Taliban insurgency they are convinced is supervised by and based in Pakistan, they have expressed little remorse, even accusing Pakistan of exaggerating the gravity of the situation to deflect attention from its own meddling in Afghanistan.
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“It’s simply overreaction,” said the senior Afghan official, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. “We have suffered, they have suffered, I mean, come on. Our police and army people die in scores every day. And Pakistani civilians die every day. . . . This time, it’s been military casualties.”
A former Afghan official said Karzai is regularly frustrated by what he sees as the United States’ failure to take stronger action against Taliban sanctuaries in Pakistan or pressure Pakistan’s military or intelligence agency to address the problem.
“We put all our eggs in the American basket,” he said. “The problem is, that basket has a huge hole in it, and it’s called Pakistan.”
Amen.
We are going to pull and watch them go down.
The US Generals willing to state this same sentiment as the Afghani General are taken to the woodshed and then sent out to pasture.
The way the Whacki-Pakis behave reminds me of a conversation between Alfred and Bruce Wayne. Bruce Wayne was trying to figure out why the Joker did the things he did.
Alfred Pennyworth: A long time ago, I was in Burma, my friends and I were working for the local government. They were trying to buy the loyalty of tribal leaders by bribing them with precious stones. But their caravans were being raided in a forest north of Rangoon by a bandit. So we went looking for the stones. But in six months, we never found anyone who traded with him. One day I saw a child playing with a ruby the size of a tangerine. The bandit had been throwing them away.
Bruce Wayne: Then why steal them?
Alfred Pennyworth: Because he thought it was good sport. Because some men aren’t looking for anything logical, like money. They can’t be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn
Such is it as with our pals, the Whacki-Pakis….they just want to watch the world burn….
BBC documentary “Secret Pakistan”, parts 1 and 2. It’s long, but worth it. Wheels within wheels….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJdFqioR-YA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5-lSSC9dSE
SK1 I do think you are on to something..
A nation of Jokers(I don’t mean the funny kind.)
wife and I had a Pak doc in Coos Bay for about
two visits. He took a dislike to my wife, and I to
him. He told my wife she:”Wasn’t following orders.”
She wasn’t. If she had she’d been hospitalized..
I do think there is some sort of national hatred
of the USA…
The problem is not that they hate us. It is that they do not fear us.
Grandpa Bluewater,
We ‘could’ fix that…
And, perhaps, we should.
The issue is they have no notion of restraint…..the Soviets and the Chinese are at odds with us, but not to the point of mutual destruction…..self preservation kicks in at some point and they throttle it back.
The Whacking-Pakis don’t seem to be wired the same way…..they seem all too willing to watch the world burn.
Greetings:
Fouad Ajami didn’t call them the lands of “I against my brother; my brother and I against our cousin; and, my cousin, my brother and I against the stranger” for nothing.
I still somewhat amazed that none of those smarter than I has come up with some kind of Viet Nam-style Phoenix Program for our muslim brother and sisters. With that kind of world-view, on e would think that it would be a natural.
Karzai is as corrupt as they come. A muck as the Paks. But, he has pinpointed the problem.
If the Pak problem is to be solved, the US needs another supply route, or we will have to solve the problem from another base. I wonder if Putie will allow the latter since most routes will have to go through Russia (almost Soviet Union and I’m not sure that’s much of a slip up).