Re: "This is kind of embarassing...don't you think GWB would have gotten the o.k. on this from Pakistan before saying it....or if he had the o.k. but wasn't supposed to talk about it publicly, he would just keep quiet."
That's because the Prez didn't really mean it... his remarks were *strictly for domestic consumption* (and with an eye to the nearness of the elections).
He HEDGED his comment until it was pared down into nearly nothing (i.e., we would step on the sacred soil of Pakistan, LOL, ONLY if we had HARD, CREDIBLE, UNREFUTABLE EVIDENCE pointing to EXACTLY WHERE OBL was sitting his butt down.)
Odds of that were fairly slight... which possibly explains why he didn't expect Pakistan to raise a stink over his comments....
SURELY he has had opportunity after opportunity to crack down on the Pakistani jihadists who helped to attack us (they created and supported, and *still* support, the Taliban... gave and *still* give sanctuary to al Qaeda... wired $100,000 *directly* to Mohammed Atta on 9-10, the day before the 9-11 attacks, etc., etc.)
Bush could have cracked down on Pakistan after 9-11, but he didn't... or he could have cracked down on them for SPREADING NUCLEAR WEAPONS TECHNOLOGY around the world (to North Korea, to Libya, to Iran), but he didn't... or he could have NOT ALLOWED the Airlift of Evil which evacuated Taliban and ISI and al Qaeda top honchos out of Afghanistan on a direct Pakistani military flight, but he didn't. (The WH actually *CLEARED* the airspace for the evacuation flight to proceed, ordering our air cover to stand aside....)
He could have attacked the Taliban and al Qaeda types sheltering just inside the Pakistani border ANYTIME in the several years we have been at war... but he chose not to.
And now, he's proposed a big new fighter/bomber military sale to Pakistan... so, I think it's clear that he didn't really expect anyone to *believe* that his words about 'going after OBL' represented ANY kind of change at all....
He's probably very surprised that they bothered to say anything at all. |
