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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: arun gera who wrote (32605)	6/19/2002 4:58:29 AM
From: frankw1900	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

The Konduz airlift was almost certainly the price for US Pakistan bases. Also, Mushareff is one of the world's great con men - "apres moi, le deluge of Islamist nutters replacing me as the head of a nuclear power." The Pakistan problem grew worse with Zia el Haq who islamized a good protion of the security and armed forces in the wahabbist/deobandist fashion. This is unfortunate because the Pakistan armed forces are not incompetent in the Arab fashion. Anyway, Mushareff grew his career in this environment running much of the Pakistan Afghan program. I don't know if he believes the islamist nonsense or just went with it as career path. It's pretty clear though, that after 9/11 Powell went to Pakistan and put the fear of something in him because he grudgingly began to cooperate with US efforts. After Powell, Mushareff had a series of meetings throughout the country with military and religious leaders - the message he bore was we'll be crushed like ants unless we cooperate with the US - they are really, really, pissed off. Most of the military guys who aren't religious nutters got the idea the religious types told him he could be replaced. So Mush did what he could to protect the many Pakistani assets in Afghanistan for reasons of self preservation and he sold that to the US because it's not sure who it will deal with if he goes down. Pakistan is an ally only under duress while it's military and security services are unreformed and the Konduz airlift is one the kind of things you have to do to get them to cooperate. That's the reason the Hersh article didn't make much stir. Most folk understand this. The Pakistan English language papers have pointed out for a long time now that their military's obsession with India and Kashmir is an enormous mistake equal in scale to their delusion they can run the country. The proxy war Pak military has been running against india (not just in Kashmir) will certainly end in disaster sooner or later. Part of the disaster will be unique to Pakistan: it stands serious risk of being Talibanized by all the terroists it has produced. By the way, some thousands of those Pak fighters in northern Afghanistan were captured and are being held for ransom by the folk there. The going rate for an ordinary fool is a @ $5000 US but subject to negotiation. That's why no one's talking about them and they kind of "disappeared."