You Tell Me What This Picture Says …
Karzai – Was weak, still weak looking for Zalmay to come babysit. Had the right idea when he was against “warlordism.”
Zardari – Mr. 10% available anywhere, anytime except in his own country which is in a state of veritable civil war — how much time has he spent away from the levers of power since the Swat campaign began? Guess who’s in charge in Pakistan: Still the Army.
Ahmadinejad – He’s saying, “Look at me Bibi! Here’s my brother who already has nukes … Suck It.”
Video: Zardari and Karzai on Defeating the Taliban – Charlie Rose Show
Missed this last week – worth a watch if you’re monitoring the mess that is Af-Pak.
Transcript: Presidents Zardari & Karzai Interviews on Meet the Press, May 10, 2009
(Source: NBC’s Meet the Press)
MR. DAVID GREGORY (HOST): … But first, the presidents of Pakistan and Afghanistan. I sat down with both leaders earlier this week after their White House meetings. Pakistan’s President Zardari, in office for the last eight months, is the widower of slain Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. I began by asking about the Taliban and whether he agrees with the Obama administration that the group represents an existential threat to his country.
MR. ASIF ALI ZARDARI: No, I consider the philosophy of Taliban as threat to the world, not just to Pakistan and your country, but I feel it’s a larger threat.
Obama Administration Preps for ‘Come to Mohammed’ Meeting with Afghan, Pak Leaders
Could a storyline leaked to the New York Times’ front page on Monday signal an end to America’s codependence on an untrustworthy Pakistan?
Despite the erratic behavior of the Pervez Musharraf government for most of George W. Bush’s presidency, of the Big Worry — Pakistan’s nukes — we were always told, no problem. I can remember Pentagon and Bush Administration officials speaking cryptically of fail-safe mechanisms which would keep the weapons or nuclear material from ever falling into the wrong hands.
Hillary Wears the Pants in the Obama Family When it Comes to Pakistan
Hopefully today’s remarks by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton tell more about the state of mind in the Obama Administration regarding Pakistan than the President’s earlier hints that the U.S. may negotiate with elements of the Taliban.
From the New York Times coverage Clinton’s appearance before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs:
… “I think that the Pakistani government is basically abdicating to the Taliban and to the extremists,” Mrs. Clinton told the House Foreign Affairs Committee as she responded to questions on an array of topics. …
… Moreover, Mrs. Clinton said, the deterioration of security in nuclear-armed Pakistan “poses a mortal threat to the security and safety of our country and the world.”
After accusing the Pakistani government of caving in to the Taliban, Mrs. Clinton went on in more scathing detail. “If you talk to people in Pakistan, especially in the ungoverned territories, which are increasing in number, they don’t believe the state has a judiciary system that works,” she said.
“It’s corrupt, it doesn’t extend its power into the countryside. So the government of Pakistan, however it is constituted, which is of course their business, not ours, must begin to deliver government services.”
Otherwise Ms. Clinton warned, “they are going to lose out to those who show up and claim that they can solve people’s problems, and then they will impose this harsh form of oppression on women and others.”
Secretary Clinton is hitting the nail squarely on the head. A Frontline World documentary last week told a gripping tale of the Taliban’s growing influence outside Pakistan’s Northwest Territories and Federally Administered Tribal Areas. Earlier this month, Pakistani President Asaf Zardari essentially ceded control of the Swat Valley to the Taliban in order to get the Islamic extremists to cease violent raids in the area. Radical clerics in Pakistan are already exhorting their followers that Swat is only the beginning.
I don’t know what the answer is, but I know negotiating with the Taliban – a la Zardari – is not the answer. Going from backwater Afghanistan under Taliban control to nuclear Pakistan under their thumb is not progress.
Pakistan Still the Land of Dissembling When Americans Come Calling
I’m reading David Sanger’s book, The Inheritance. It’s a great read that outlines some of the thorniest foreign policy issues facing the new Obama Administration. It tracks the Bush Administration’s policies or policy vacuums regarding places like North Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Sanger discusses the approximately $10 billion in funds that the U.S. has funneled into Pakistan since 9/11 and the high probability that some of it has probably been used against us, while still more of it has been simply wasted through corruption or in building up Pakistan’s Indian-facing military forces. Over and over during the Bush years, Presidents Pervez Musharaf and Bush publicly proclaimed their mutual admiration. On Bush’s end it was wishful thinking – we need the Pakistanis to help fight the Taliban and al-Qaeda. As for Mr. Musharaf it was all about making and closing every sale, that is, ensuring the steady flow of greenbacks to prop up his ailing government and economy.
Sanger also recounts a steady procession of U.S. military, intelligence and diplomatic officials streaming in and out of Islamabad, sometimes there to deliver strong messages akin to, “We know you can do better with the nutjobs in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas” (also known as the “in” destination for Taliban and terrorists). Musharaf or his generals or ISI spooks would shrug and smile. Sometimes there would be genuine surprise at some intel being brought to them by their American Sugar Daddies. Shortly thereafter there might be a few radical teenagers plucked from a Madrassa and held for a time.
On Friday, David Ignatius writes in the Washington Post from Islamabad chronicling yet another U.S. administration and yet still another military/diplomatic delegation who are now speaking to Musharaf’s successor, Asif Ali Zardari. From Ignatius’ column, it sounds like things haven’t changed much in Pakistan:
Later that day, Zardari met us at his office overlooking the city. He was convincing when he discussed the legacy of his late wife, Benazir Bhutto, who was killed in December 2007 by what he called the “cancer” of Muslim terrorism. But on some major security and intelligence issues, he claimed no knowledge or sought to shift blame to others, and the overall impression was of an accidental president who still has an uncertain grasp on power.
Sanger’s tale of Bush and Musharaf is still fresh in my mind. It sounds like the faces have changed on both sides of this relationship but the reality hasn’t.
