Michael,
If you take out tony sopranos entire crew at the Bing, there is no succession. We might actually get to see something like this happen in the next two episodes. I dont understand why most folks on this thread minimize the importance of not getting bin laden and al z.
I don't think anyone is "minimizing" the importance of killing the leadership of AQ (or any other Jihadist cell structure). I'm certainly not.
But there's a cost/benefit analysis that has to be evaluated here. Is the benefit to be derived from killing AQ leadership greater than the cost? What's the cost of risking armed confrontation between US and Pakistani forces by deciding to take matters into our own hands and sending "hunter/killer" teams into Pakistan without the cooperation of the Pakistani government? Should we risk undermining the Pakistani government, uncooperative/deceptive as they may be, embarrassing them by unilaterally violating Pakistan's sovereignty?
These "things" have to be done carefully. You just don't go in like a bull in a china shop, unless you're prepared to face the possibility of death by "thousand cuts" from all that falling "glass".
And let's face it Michael.. Few Americans are willing to engage in total war against hundreds of millions of muslims in SW Asia. And even fewer would be willing to occupy those countries and be required to use "aggressive techniques" to wipe out the Salafist/Takfirist elements, while reshaping their societies to align with democratic values.
And let's look at history.. after WWII, many Nazis fled to Spain and S. America, while others fled to Egypt and Syria. In fact, Martin Bormann apparently smuggled close to a billion dollars worth of gold and currency to Juan Peron's Argentina, a pretty sizable sum in today's currency.
Yet, did we declare war upon those countries, most of them Fascist and totalitarian in nature, just to eliminate those Nazi leaders? No...
Bottom line, the most we can do with Pakistan is cajole, encourage, admonish, and when appropriate, blackmail or embarrass, Pakistan's leaders into doing what should represent our combined interests against Islamic Militancy.
Hawk |
