The Problem with Pakistan

The White House is taking a tough stand with Pakistan.

That's overdue.

From The New York Times:

President Bush has decided to send an unusually tough message to one of his most important allies, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the president of Pakistan, warning him that the newly Democratic Congress could cut aid to his country unless his forces become far more aggressive in hunting down operatives with Al Qaeda, senior administration officials say.

The way The Times phrases this bugs me.

Pakistan isn't one of President Bush's most important allies. Pakistan is one of AMERICA'S most important allies in the War on Terror.

I can't stand it when libs use that sort of language -- Bush's war, Bush's allies, etc.

The decision came after the White House concluded that General Musharraf is failing to live up to commitments he made to Mr. Bush during a visit here in September. General Musharraf insisted then, both in private and public, that a peace deal he struck with tribal leaders in one of the country’s most lawless border areas would not diminish the hunt for the leaders of Al Qaeda and the Taliban or their training camps.

Now, American intelligence officials have concluded that the terrorist infrastructure is being rebuilt, and that while Pakistan has attacked some camps, its overall effort has flagged.

“He’s made a number of assurances over the past few months, but the bottom line is that what they are doing now is not working,” one senior administration official who deals often with South Asian issues said late last week. “The message we’re sending to him now is that the only thing that matters is results.”

I think it's the right move.

Musharraf has to cooperate or lose U.S. aid. It's that simple.

Last week, I found this extremely disturbing story on Al Jazeera:

Suspected pro-Taliban fighters have beheaded an Afghan refugee, accused of spying for the US, and left his body by a road.

The man's corpse, with its severed head and limbs, was found on Monday near Ghulam Khan, a town in Pakistan's North Waziristan region, close to the Afghan border, a Pakistani intelligence official said.

A note found with the corpse identified the man as Nek Amal, from Zozak village in Afghanistan's neighbouring Khost province.

The note said Amal was "a spy of America".

...Scores of people, including tribal elders and religious leaders, have been killed by suspected fighters in recent years in the border region for alleged collusion with the Pakistani authorities or spying for the US.

A suicide bomber dressed in a doctor's coat has blown himself up at a hospital in Khost, wounding at least two Nato soldiers.

The Taliban beheaded a man and severed his limbs. They kill people on whims. They blow people up in hospitals.

The terrorists are barbarians.

Their tactics, gruesome murders, and mutilation of corpses are difficult to grasp. They are so horrific.

Are we really expected to believe the blowhard Dems that if the U.S. left the region this violence would end?

How can the Dems be so naive to think that the solution is to cut and run?

The Islamic extremists came to our country and attacked us on September 11, 2001.

We weren't in Afghanistan then. We weren't in Iraq then.

When Islamic terrorists first tried to bring down the World Trade Center in February 1993, President Bush didn't hold elected office. Bill Clinton was in office and the Dems ruled Congress.

The terrorist attacks continued throughout the 90s, during that supposedly blissful era of peace and prosperity while Clinton was in office.

The point is Bush's policies didn't create the Islamic extremists. Bush didn't recruit those terrorists.

The Dems like to blame Bush and claim that he caused the violence.

He didn't.

He inherited it.

The Dems like to play politics. They conduct their games by lying to the American people.

When I think about the barbarism of our enemies, I can't believe that the Dems are putting all of their energy into attacking President Bush for purely political gain.

It puts our nation at risk. It's unconscionable.

Bush did not create the Taliban. Toppling Saddam Hussein did not create Islamic extremism.

It's a lie to suggest otherwise.

I'm sick of the Dems' lies.
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Update:

This is good news.

ISLAMABAD (AFP) -- US Vice President Dick Cheney paid a surprise visit Monday to Pakistan amid growing concern about President Pervez Musharraf's efforts to take on Al-Qaeda and Taliban extremists.

Pakistan's military ruler has been seen as a close US ally in the "war on terror," but Washington recently announced there were new Al-Qaeda training camps on Pakistani soil and indicated it wants Musharraf to do more.

There is also concern about a threatened spring offensive from the resurgent Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan, where the government has repeatedly said Pakistan is not doing enough to stop the cross-border movement of militants.

Cheney's trip, which was not made public ahead of time for security reasons, came as the New York Times quoted senior US officials saying Musharraf would get an "unusually tough message" that US aid to Pakistan could be cut unless Al-Qaeda is hunted down more aggressively.

Good work, Vice President Cheney!

I have a great deal of respect for the Bush administration.

They keep plowing ahead even as the Dems do everything in their power to hinder their efforts.