Sunday, January 27, 2008

With friends like these...














"Come on, give us a hug. We're still pals, right?

...you know the rest.

The top two American intelligence officials traveled secretly to Pakistan early this month to press President Pervez Musharraf to allow the Central Intelligence Agency greater latitude to operate in the tribal territories where Al Qaeda, the Taliban and other militant groups are all active, according to several officials who have been briefed on the visit.
But in the unannounced meetings on Jan. 9 with the two American officials — Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, and Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the C.I.A. director — Mr. Musharraf rebuffed proposals to expand any American combat presence in Pakistan, either through unilateral covert C.I.A. missions or by joint operations with Pakistani security forces.
I'm confused. I thought Mushy was our Number One BFF against the Evil Doers®!
Instead, Pakistan and the United States are discussing a series of other joint efforts, including increasing the number and scope of missions by armed Predator surveillance aircraft over the tribal areas, and identifying ways that the United States can speed information about people suspected of being militants to Pakistani security forces, officials said.
It's almost as if Mushy, concerned about his own ass, doesn't want to put forth full effort in hunting down Al Qaeda and their leader, Captain What's-His-Name. It's a good thing our President doesn't think like that because he's fighting to the finish!
In Washington, however, the Bush administration has said that fighting terrorists, chiefly Al Qaeda, is the primary purpose of the $10 billion in American aid that has been sent to Pakistan, mostly for reimbursements for the cost of patrolling the tribal areas. President Bush has often praised Mr. Musharraf for fighting terrorism, pointing out that Al Qaeda has tried to kill the Pakistani leader. But White House officials were silent when Mr. Musharraf said this week that his efforts were focused on the Taliban, and that the main problem the United States faced was in Afghanistan, not Pakistan.
"I'll take your money, but I won't plow your driveway."
Last Tuesday, the State Department’s counterterrorism chief, Lt. Gen. Dell L. Dailey, echoed some of those concerns, telling reporters that there were gaps in what the United States knew about the threat in the tribal areas. “We don’t have enough information about what’s going on there,” said General Dailey, who retired from the Army with extensive experience in military Special Operations. “Not on Al Qaeda. Not on foreign fighters. Not on the Taliban.”
Too bad we were never close to nabbing Captain-What's-His-Name before. All this back door wheeling-and-dealing could've been avoided. C'est la vie.
In dealing with the American requests, Mr. Musharraf is conducting a delicate balancing act. American officials contend that now, more than ever, he recognizes the need to step up the battle against extremists who are seeking to topple his government. But he also believes that if American forces are discovered operating in Pakistan, the backlash will be more than he can control, especially because the Taliban and Al Qaeda are trying to cast him as a pawn of Washington.
Honestly, can you blame the guy? We've seen all too well the inevitable, grisly demise of poodles upon the world stage. Why resort to eating the dry dog food when you can have the fancy kind? There's real meat in there!

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

The user and the used. Which is which?

Christopher said...

What's the old expression?

"You're known by the friends you keep?"

Nuff said.

Freida Bee said...

And there's that other expression, "With friends like these...."

That picture is great. It looks like a lovers' quarrel in public, where they are too upset to hold it in, but embarrassed it's happening in public. Mushy must have found out about his other beau, Prince Abdullah.

Suzi Riot said...

Freida: Hahahaha! You're right! "Please come back, baby. I didn't mean it! Everybody's watching and I don't want to upset the children."

Dean Wormer said...

Don't forget Saudi Arabia! We have tons of good buddies around the world!

LET'S TALK said...

I like what Christopher said, which seems to sum it all up.

"You're known by the friends you keep"

Freida Bee said...

Welp, I unwittingly plagarized your very own phrase (you invented that right?) within the very same post. That's brilliant. How am I expected to think with all these lovers spatting 'round here.

s. douglas said...

At least they'll always have Paris.

Randal Graves said...

dcup, a couple of junkies enabling each other.

christopher, then we know all we need to know about this lunatic.

FB and Suzi, I think Dubya loves the prince more, holding hands and all that. Oil complicates a relationship, always does.

dean wormer, oh, the Saudis are so special, we don't even need to mention them!

let's talk, exactly, a non-stop cavalcade of thugs, autocrats and psychopaths.

FB 2: electric boogaloo, of course I invented it. I have the patent around here somewhere....

fairlane, ha ha ha ha!

Tom Harper said...

I thought Pakistan was our friend. I guess there's only one thing we can do now. "You're either with us or you're with the terrorists." "We will make no distinction between the terrorists who attacked us and the countries that harbor them."

Well Dumbya, you know what you've gotta do Cowboy.

Who Hijacked Our Country