Who Is John Kerry Trying to Kid?
Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper reported last Thursday, no doubt with some relief, that during his confirmation hearing for his nomination as secretary of State, Senator John Kerry declared that he opposed cutting American aid to Pakistan, which he saw as a “‘dramatic, draconian and sledge-hammer’ measure. Senator Kerry also said that Pakistan’s role in leading the United States to Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad had not been sufficiently appreciated.”
Who is Kerry kidding? The Pakistani government didn’t help the U.S. find bin Laden. In fact, they were enraged that they had not been filled in on the details of the hunt, which was a wise decision in light of the jihadist ties of the ISI, the Pakistani spy service.
How enraged were they? Let’s recall how events unfolded in May 2011, just after bin Laden was killed. The day his killing became known, May 2, 2011, 800 Pakistanis held a rally in Quetta, proclaiming:
Bin Laden was the hero of the Muslim world and after his martyrdom he has won the title of great mujahed.
But that was only 800 people. The vast majority of Pakistanis rejected the views of this tiny minority of extremists, right? Wrong. By just over a week after bin Laden’s death, 100,000 Osama bin Laden posters had been sold in Pakistan. Two weeks after his death, 4,000 bin Laden supporters rallied in Lahore to protest the killing of bin Laden, chanting “America is the worst enemy of humanity!” A nationwide poll conducted at that time found 51 percent of Pakistanis saying that they felt grief over bin Laden’s death.
Of course, none of this means that the Pakistani government didn’t help the U.S. find bin Laden, even if its cooperation was unpopular with its own people. However, that wasn’t the case, either. The CIA confirmed just after the raid that Pakistani officials had not been informed about it for fear that they would “jeopardize the mission.” This fear appeared to be amply justified when Pakistani Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir gave the U.S. a warning: “There shall not be any doubt that any repetition of such an act [i.e., the bin Laden raid] will have disastrous consequences.”
A Pakistani opposition leader, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, lamented: “This is the biggest tragedy in the history of Pakistan after the fall of East Pakistan in 1971.” He added: “Heads should roll.” There were prayers for bin Laden in Pakistan’s National Assembly. The nation’s parliament condemned the raid and even threatened the U.S. with sanctions.
Does John Kerry really not know any of this, or does he just hope that we don’t? His appointment represents a continuation of policies that have failed again and again, and seem to be immune to evaluation in light of how they have played out on the world stage. There is at this point no reason whatsoever for the U.S. to continue to send billions of taxpayer dollars to Pakistan.
One might reasonably have assumed that the Pakistani government — which has received well over a billion dollars a year from the United States since 9/11 in order to fight al-Qaeda and the Taliban — would be embarrassed by the fact that bin Laden was discovered on its soil, clearly enjoying for years the protection of highly placed Pakistani officials. In response to that embarrassment, it would have been reasonable to expect the Pakistani government to start working hard to demonstrate its trustworthiness to the Americans, to show them that all the money that the U.S. has poured into Pakistan has not been wasted, and that as it continues to flow, it will not be wasted.
Instead, the Pakistanis reacted with all the rage and indignation that I have just outlined – to which the U.S. government’s response has been (characteristically) to try to “rebuild trust” with the Pakistanis, as if the difficulties in the relationship were all our fault. All this has been illustrative of where Pakistan stands in the fight against the global jihad, and where it has stood since September 11, 2001. The U.S. has paid billions to Pakistan since then in order to aid its government’s fight against al-Qaeda and the Taliban. It has been revealed, however, that much of that money has gone to those same organizations, and that the ISI, Pakistan’s spy service, has significant ties with al-Qaeda.
In light of that, it’s clear that Kerry is wrong. It is time to cut off aid to Pakistan. It is long past time. If the aid is to continue, Obama and Kerry should at least require the Pakistani government to come clean. It strains credulity to the breaking point to imagine that Pakistani officials, including the nation’s president, didn’t know that bin Laden was in the country, and in a safe house near Pakistan’s military academy. The circumstances of bin Laden’s last years and death indicate that Pakistan has been an even more unreliable and two-faced ally than anyone has realized up to now — and that is saying a great deal. It has now been several years since a report from the London School of Economics documented how Pakistani military intelligence was aiding the Taliban in Afghanistan, and was actually represented in the Taliban’s governing apparatus. The situation has only gotten worse since then.
The fantasy-based policymaking that has counted Pakistan as a U.S. ally for so many years has been thoroughly discredited. Yet no one in the ever-feckless Obama administration is making any move to change our failed approach to affairs with this rogue state. It is the height of stupidity for the U.S. to continue to put itself in the position of being played for a fool and used as a cash cow by a Pakistani government that is more obviously than ever in league with our enemies.
And John Kerry should know that, and care.
John Kerry is the kind of man who lives in his own bubble. He knows what he believes because he is one of the elites, let the facts fall where they may. The only impressive thing that has sprung from his head is his hair. John Kerry has the hair of a statesman. Only in the Senate could such a man be so honored.
I try but I still can’t drink the kool-aid. OBL was photographed dead in December after 9-11 at the cave district.
To believe that he was now still alive some 11 years later and still on dialysis is a real stretch.
Now let us take a look at the military memo concerning his burial at sea the day before the raid on Abottabad and the fact that there are no pictures of him ever taken with eye witness verbage.
Add to this the illogical and phoney helicopter shootdown/crash that killed a bunch of Team 6 people and right away you have some doubts as to what is happening in the WH.
Maybe this is the perfect place of Kerry. Maybe he can gin up some more phoney wounds like he did at CRB in Nam. What a liar and phoney… Fits in well with Obama….
They should have stuffed and mounted OBL and displayed him in the Smithsonian.
America is in good hands with this solid ‘C’ student.
— sarcasm off —
There are also the actions of Pakistan in the wake of the UBL raid: 1) they showed our downed aircraft to the Chinese, and 2) arrested a man on suspicion of helping us. Last I heard that guy was still in prison.
With allies like this, etc.
So why don’t the Republicans do anything about it? They control the house.
The blame for the terrible US Foreign policy is the fault of both policies. Obama is just carrying on where Bush left off.
Jeremy, would you PLEASE pull your head out and stop blaming Bush for Obama’s failures? Obama has been President for four years and his record, on its own merits, is pathetic. Bin Laden was NOT one of his accomplishments. It was a farce and anyone who believed him is an uneducated fool.
Which you regard as a good reason for Obama to do it?
Gee, you must really like Bush.
My thanks again to the kool aid drinkers that reelected the most divisive president in our history so that he can allow clowns like kerry to have a voice in the dumbing down of the United States of America. The laughter from our enemies overseas is becoming so loud you can hear it throughout America.
The Russians, who are not our enemies, are truly sickened by the way we have squandered our legacy.
To understand John Kerry as SecState you must first understand Obama. The two have a shared ideology, and with the both of them, whatever they say that is not rooted in their common ideology will be absolutely the opposite of truth.
Both Obama and Kerry (and others) are so well practiced in political rhetoric that they can say the things they say so well that anyone not paying attention would easily be gulled, beguiled, or bamboozled. To those of us who are paying attention we shriek that it is not true, and we are dismissed as partisan cranks. The uncertain observer struggles to explain why Kerry or Obama would say such a thing and try to explain it away as misguided or do to inexperience, because to believe those right wing extremist fanatics is simply not acceptable, there MUST BE a rational explanation if only it can be found.
The Pakistanis are the most duplicitous S.O.B.s out there, probably only matched by the Iranians. The faster we are out of Afghanistan, the faster we can let Pakistan twist in the wind. We are basically paying blackmail money to Pakistan. We given them billions in “foreign aid,” in hopes that they don’t give their nuclear technology to rogue regimes or terrorist groups. Yet the Pakistanis will always sell their technology to the highest bidder, as with the A.Q. Khan network, and could care less about American security. Probably more than half of the Pakistani ISI are radical Islamists bent on seeing Pakistan ruled by someone like bin Laden, which is why they were so angry over his death. We will win no converts there. Their madrassas, funded by Saudi Arabia, keep spreading their violent form of Islam and world domination. Countries like Iran and Pakistan are the real enemies in the Middle East, and the sooner we recognize that, the better. We should be putting all of our time, energy, and resources in cultivating stronger diplomatic, military, and economic ties with India. THAT will send a message to both Pakistan AND Iran to knock it off.
Thurston Howell III and Lovey. What a couple of maroons! I guess nothing should surprise me any more. Too bad he didn’t go on a 3 hour tour on his “gun boat” back when. He did serve in Viet Nam in case you forgot. Maybe his expertise will allow him to negotiate with Jhen-Jhis Khan. The haughty john f’n kerry should fit right in with the hoi paloi. What an outstanding negotiator. Kind of like when he went to gay Paree to have talks with the NVA. What a disgrace this clown is. Now thankfully he can once again say: “Reporting for duty”.
And, don’t forget the fine folks in Pock-E-stan thanked us by locking up the good doctor who got the DNA sample for us. He’ll be out and singing our praises in another 32 years….
John Kerry…… snecretary of…….. snate……..>;P……..
I’m going to punish all of you for rejecting me for that moron in 2004.
PS.- I’m richer (thanks to my wife) than Mitt Romney. Ha!
Hillary much?
There are lies and there are insults. Kerry’s stance covers both.
Then again when Clapper can state, straight faced that the *Muslim Brotherhood is ‘largely secular’ what more can we expect from this apology of an administration?
* Clue to clueless Clapper: It’s there in the first word.
You didn’t mention Pakistan’s role in the exporting of nuclear tech to rogue states. That alone should warrented the cessation of aid.
Absolutely. The Pakistanis are NOT our friends, and portions of their so-called government are actively on the other side.
NO CASH FOR YOU!
We can start by NOT BUYING Harley Davidson brand leather apparel, they are made in Pakistan. Their economy is greatly tied to ours so if the Government will not restrict trade We the People should see what we can do to stop buying Pakistani.
Kerry is being very consistent. Facts must give way to ideology. Ideology is that there would be World Peace if only Americans weren’t such clueless, immoral, contemptible bunglers. If only we would leave our wicked ways, apologise to all the world, and promise to play nice from now on, all the world would love us.
It’s gonna be a long four years…..
What happens if the US cuts off aid to Pakistan? Do we see a feckless and unreliable ally become our enemy? We cut off aid and suddenly Pakistan behaves? The US is not (and never was) the omnipotent force for good in the world that Mr. Spencer and others believe it to be. We cannot control events, only mitigate them. Cutting off aid to Pakistan serves what purpose?
It’s not that Kerry is wrong; it’s that he’s a liar and a traitor. Always has been.
And lets not forget the Pakistani Dr., and his treatment as a traitor, in helping the US to get bin laden.
John Kerry is a sleazebag, a liar, and an opportunist. In other words he fits perfectly in this disgusting administration.
Just Bring Our Troops Home!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChXYfLaJnj4
STOP sending OUR money to Pakistan TODAY…. we can discuss the rest tomorrow.
It seems strange a country ostensibly against American intervention tolerates so many drone strikes in their country.
Kind of reminds me of America’s strangely quiet if not smugly happy reaction whenever Israel pushes back against its enemies.
Its almost like we are glad. (which we are). Maybe the govt of Pakistan is similarly happy with us when we knock off a few terrorists.
I find it interesting that Jim Harrison hasn’t commented on this topic. He claims that the only reason why he singles out Israel for demonization and vilification is that Israel receives aid from the United States. Where is his outrage regarding Pakistan and other countries that receive aid from the United States and those countries miserable human rights records, occupations, settlements, etc.
I meant “those countries’ [plural possessive]“
I should’ve ended the original post with a question mark.