Pakistan throws in the towel.

[formercia]

So much for Fearless Leader's rhetoric.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/09/pakistan_throws.html

Pakistan Throws in the Towel

September 05, 2006 1:04 PM

Gretchen Peters and Habibullah Khan Report:

Taliban_peace_nrThe Pakistani military will no longer operate in the area where Osama bin Laden and other top al Qaeda operatives are believed to be hiding, according to terms of what the Pakistan government calls a "peace deal," signed today with militant tribal groups allied to the Taliban and al Qaeda.

It is a stunning setback for U.S. efforts to root out al Qaeda and Taliban strongholds.

The agreement, signed in the North Waziristan district of Pakistan's volatile tribal belt, calls for the military to return to its barracks and for the insurgents to stop launching attacks on Pakistani troops.

"The army will pull back to its camps," spokesman Major General Shaukut Sultan told ABC News. "They will not undertake any terrorist activity. There will be no parallel government, and foreigners will leave the area."

[Nickster]

1. Hey, isn't that appeasement? Are they morally confused?n/t

[denverbill]

2. Why don't we demand Pakistan hand over bin Laden?

And if they don't, we invade.

It worked for Afghanistan.

[sui generis]

3. well a foreigner in Waziristan

could very well just be someone from the next hill over, but to be fair the entire "tribal" thing is volatile everywhere in Pakistan.

Any military action in a heavily militarized society almost certainly ensures that some relative of someone is going to be in conflict with another relative, that if not brother policing brother, certainly kinsmen will be policing kinsmen. Add to that the concept of shaikh and mullah and other tribal authority and all of a sudden armies are no longer confronting men, but confronting some man's idea of What Allah(your god goes here) Wants.

Add to that the fact that by western standards the weight of tradition and authority are overvalued, and likely anyone who had a genetic predisposition to flout authority or tradition was long ago weeded out of the genepool and Houston, you've got a problem.

Musharraf is not being anti-American. Musharraf is sitting on a powder keg, as any ruler in a country with powerful high priests must. It would take very little in a country like Pakistan for the balance of power and politics and culture to topple into a free for all; a civil war fought between one ideology of conservative cultural atavism and another with those who refuse to take sides paying the heaviest price.

[Ilsa]

4. Uh-oh. Another invasion possibility?

I'm sure Cheney would love toadd another country to his list.

[Dhalgren]

5. Can't invade Pakistan - got nukes. Move on, nothing to see here.

I bet this gets zero time on US network news - unless Katie and Rush discuss it....

[daleo]

9. Nukes and 100 million+ people and difficult terrain

Not a "cakewalk", that's for sure.

[CraigHinTenn]

12. Plus we just sold them a bunch of Fighter Jets....

[Ilsa]

14. Oh, how could I forget, especially after their top scientist

was fingered for selling nuke recipes.

[GeorgeGist]

6. Do I hear 'Desperate throes'...

anyone? Are the leaves turning in Aspen? Is the empire stronger now? Is it time to 'bring em on'? Please all knowing one :wtf: does it mean?

[varun]

7. The REAL war on terrorism

is in Pakistan. Then Afghanistan.

Iraq? Now that is a total distraction.

[rodeodance]

8. this IS a real setback. Pak mil. making deals with Taliban.

[ConcernedCanuk]

10. Deserves some thought here - I have never met a STUPID Pakistani

.
.
.

I have worked with some, shopped in stores that they own, and ridden in cabs where they OWNED the cab company, AND the gas station that they filled up in , , ,

AND THEY EARNED IT!

The families stay together until the children are secure with job/home marriage maybe, sometimes in their 30's before they leave the "nest"

But they OWN their house/car/business, whatever . .

They are patient, we are not -

We want that $40,000 car toy to impress our friends/relatives and lease forever draining our pocketbooks on something we can never REALLY own

We should learn from other cultures,

instead of degrading them because they are "different"

heck

we ALL are different -

just look at your neighbour,

or mate . .

anyhoo,

They ain't gonna get fooled by that Boy King in America . . .

[maxsolomon]

11. musharraf values his survival above anything else

and so do we.

we can't afford a theocracy in pakistan. instant power over nukes.

so now the only way we can touch OBL is with our own spies & cruise missiles.

could have had him at tora bora but for bungling.

[yellowcanine]

13. Cutting and Running from their own country? Some allies we got there,

chimpy.

[Neshanic]

15. Now Osama can start that master planned community with golf course.

Those planning and zoning meetings can be a real terror. It will be the next Dubai!