Are we in for a cold war with Pakistan?
Pakistan outed the US CIA station chief in Islamabad in December 2010, in the form of a lawsuit against him for ordering drone strikes on al Qaeda operatives in Pakistan’s tribal areas. Osama bin Laden is found living in a slummish villa a short jog from Pakistan’s military academy, where he had been living for several years. And now Pakistan has outed a second US CIA station chief in country.
This is starting to look like some of the tit for tat stuff we used to see between the US and USSR during the Cold War. While I don’t have access to the ghost of James Jesus Angleton, I’m curious how he and other spooks of the time might read the goings on between the US and Pakistan. We’ve had the case of the jailed diplomat, and the Pakistanis getting increasingly fidgety over drone strikes in their territory, plus the rest, all in the past six months or so. If the US truly did not tip the Pakistanis to the OBL raid, the relationship is all but dead and the Pakistanis, at least in public, are doing nothing to restore any trust. The US-Pakistan relationship is looking very frosty.
If we are in for a cold war with Pakistan (or already in one), what happens? That region of the world becomes even more dicey than it already is. The first casualty would be US aid to Pakistan, which probably gets replaced in short order by aid to Pakistan from China. Afghanistan becomes more and more violent, as the Pakistani ISI uses the increased US-Pakistani hostility as a pretext to boost its support for the Taliban and wage a proxy war against US forces. While US-India ties strengthen, Pakistan could become to China what Syria is to Iran: A client state fostering terrorists against a common enemy. Afghanistan plays the role of Lebanon.
It goes without saying that the fact that a nuclear-armed Pakistan with a history of its scientists proliferating that technology to our enemies, plus the massive US indebtedness to China, puts the forces of freedom very much behind the non-magic 8-ball.
Frankly, this is a situation that calls for more Judo than Boxing.
They want the US out, and to use China as a more-tolerant backer. Frankly, that’s the LAST thing we should deny them. If we can clever give them everything they want until the Khan network and ISI are “China’s problem,” they’ll do whatever they need to do in order to avoid pushing India straight into our arms as part of an outright alliance.
Meanwhile, Afghanistan returns to a rentier state. But that’s going to happen anyway, no matter what we do – we’d have to turn into a version of the Soviet Union, circa 1976, to make anything else happen.
it is easy to forget that china’s border is on afganistan
too bad our economy is in the tubes or, more specifically, our nation’s econonmy (unable to pull a “reagan the cold war buster” against china in economic terms)
too bad we project weakness all over the world amidst enemies that only respond to strength
too bad our government is stifling, stymieing, and suffocation our free market capabilities
too bad because we will be dealing with china sooner, rather than later, in a title bout; would be best to start training and doing some jump rope
*economy; suffocating
Shut up and do something about it.
["Are we in for a cold war with Pakistan?"]
Who should care? Our steadfast and long term alliance should always remain with India! Let Pakistan and Afghanistan be an economic and ideological problem for Iran and Russia. The U.S. and India can install military systems second to none in India including U.S. and India rapid response military support bases. We need another strategic channel to China anyway.
The entire Arab/Muslim region will return to the stone age anyway once it runs out of oil unless, the Wwestern World lets them take over Northern and Western Africa resources.
“Are we in for a cold war with Pakistan?” ofcourse yes..today its need take strict action against pakistan..