Clarion Content

United States relations with Pakistan reached a post-Pressler amendment low this week. The Pakistani Army's chief of staff incensed at United States raids, that have repeatedly violated Pakistan's sovereign borders and killed Pakistani citizens, indicated the Pakistani army had orders to fire at United States military personnel engaged in hostile actions. (including "hot pursuit" over the border from Afghanistan~sadly the echoes of the Nam are everywhere these days.) It was reported in the Pakistani media that this policy was confirmed by the Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani. He said that the Pakistani Army chief's statements on the country's defense were "true reflection of the government policy."

The United States Army brass has made every effort to brush this news under the rug, much as it attempts to use language to make one forget that collateral damage from these raids often means dead women and children. A spokesman for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who was in Pakistan on an unannounced visit today said the American military leadership was, "working more closely with the Pakistani military to improve coordination and effectiveness in operations against extremist safe havens in the border regions." (Some reports indicated that Pakistani troops have already engaged United States forces.)

It must have been so much easier for the Bush II administration's military industrial complex when there was a dictator running Pakistan. It was much more natural and comfortable to be on the same side. As the first commander of the Second Gulf War, four star General Tommy Franks says in his biography, American Soldier, "For years American officials and diplomatic envoys in business suits had hectored soldier-politicians such as Perez Musharraf about human rights and representative government. Of course, I believed in these issues with equal conviction, but at this point in history we needed to establish priorities. Stopping al Qaeda was such a priority, and Musharraf was willing to help." (italics added by the Clarion for emphasis.)

Now with a democratically elected president, Asif Ali Zardari, in charge of Pakistan, the focus has shifted, in an unfortunate complication for the United States military leadership, to niggling issues like human rights and representative government, (just the basics, like quit killing our citizens with impunity and apologizing later.) The current United States policy continues to anger and radicalize the Pakistani populace. Oh and, news flash! The folks in the American military the Pakistani Army will be shooting at with real bullets and real missiles, it's not the generals, nor the policy makers.

Labels: Middle East