Re: "Asserting the non-existence of dragons, doesn't itself mean that dragons don't exist."
FACTUALLY correct. (I myself have seen a 'Komodo Dragon'... but that doesn't mean they are common. :-)
Re: "Agreeing with you would seem to mean accepting the following ideas #1) that supporting the Taliban is the coordinated policy of the Pakistani government and not just of factions within the government"
Well... let's just AGREE that the difference between 'factions' and '100% of all government agencies and all the society' is but two points on a sliding scale.
OBVIOUSLY the second condition ('100% of everything Pakistani') is not true. I do not subscribe to that view, you do not subscribe to that view.
HOWEVER I do believe that --- contrary to much of the 'spin' that has been put forth, by Pakistan, and by some others --- it remains the OFFICIAL NATIONAL POLICY (though not 'often publicly stated policy for Western media') by Pakistan to SUPPORT and SUCCOR the Pushtun/Taliban movement and insurgency, to destabilize the Afghan government (as Mohammed Karzi and many other Afghan officials have *loudly* & *recently* asserted!), and to provide for a Pushtun/Sunni-dominated & Pakistan-influenced 'buffer state' between Pakistan and the Shiite Persian state.
Our CIA, State Dept. Intelligence, British Intelligence, private Intelligence services such as Stratfor --- all AGREE that THIS REMAINS THE CASE. That *this* is true Pakistani national policy today... REGARDLESS of whatever face they want to put forth to show the West.
Re: "Agreeing with you would seem to mean accepting the following ideas" #2) "and that Pakistan (and not just a number of Pakistanis) are our enemy and we should treat the country as an enemy"
Well... for a nuclear proliferator, with DEEP ties to Taliban, al Qaeda, Sunni extremist causes of all stripe, most of who's public educational system is still, to this day, influenced and manipulated by extremist Whabbist philosophy and Saudi money, and which same Madrassahs are prime recruiting points, turning out waves of new fighters for the Taliban cause and for the terrorist campaigns in Kashmir... I'd have to say that --- if they are not OFFICALLY to be classified as 'ENEMY' by the US, then they still fall FAR SHORT of the 'ALLY' classification.
(In fact, they are about as much 'ally' to us as Iraq is....) |
