Monday, May 4, 2009

Washington Speak?

Check out this article by following the link below:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/05/world/asia/05policy.html?emc=eta1

In the text, the good Admiral proclaims that Pakistan's nukes are safe for now. He goes on to assert: "But at the same time, Admiral Mullen said that the main military focus of the United States must now shift from Iraq to Afghanistan and that the gains of the Taliban in the region threatened American interests in the region as well as the safety of Americans at home.

“I say that with the full knowledge that we still have about 136,000 American troops in Iraq, and that the fighting there isn’t over,” Admiral Mullen said. “We remain committed to the mission we’ve been given in Iraq, make no mistake, and we will stay there long enough, in keeping with their agreement, to ensure the Iraqis can provide for their own security.”

As an avid Washington follower, I believe it is my duty to decode this for you. 1) We are scared crapless about the fact that the Taliban has such a strong foothold in Pakistan. 2) The Pakistanis haven't told us jack about where the nukes really are. Even Israel can't respond because those weapons are heavily dispersed. 3) Afghanistan is nothing; what we really want to do is to move troops to Pakistan (per my suggestion in a prior blog) but the admiral can't say that directly...after all, that would be invading a sovereign country (like we haven't done this before.) And you don't make flag officer in this man's Navy by being controversial or outspoken. 4) There is no leadership and no government in Pakistan. They can't feed or educate their poor; a task that is increasingly inuring to the Taliban, especially with respect to young children. 5) The Taliban want the nukes and are likely to create a diversion so that they can capture one "on the fly" so to speak, while it is being transported. With weapons like this, it only takes one to tango.

Here's my analysis. The Taliban will end up with a nuke (the odds are 100 to 1 in favor of this happening) and they likely will fire it at India (whom they hate almost as much as they despise us.) India may yet be the savior (put very loosely) here because they will not, in my opinion, merely fire one back but rather, will seek to destroy the entire country by means conventional and otherwise.

And what is our government doing about all this? Well we're waiting for a feckless, incompetent and uncommunicative interim Pakistani President to fly over here for more discussions.

Yuck.

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