One thing out of many wrong things that George Bush did during his Presidency, was not get Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban while he could in western Pakistan.
When we had them on the run after their quick collapse in Afghanistan, we could have wiped them out, if we would have followed them into Pakistan’s tribal region.
We did the diplomatically expedient thing and stopped and honored their sovereignty. We have made minor incursions, and used drones to kill a few Taliban, but no truly meaningful attacks to get OBL or his Taliban henchmen.
Why? We didn’t honor Afghan sovereignty by going after them. We went in there, because those were the people responsible for 9/11 and we were going to get them. When they fled to Pakistan, we should have given Pakistan 10 minutes to send in their troops, and then we should have went in when the answer was no or there was no response.
If Pakistan wasn’t going to help us get those responsible for 9/11 then to heck with Pakistan. Yes, I know they have nukes and there would be a chance they would try to use them on us. Poppycock. As long as we only had ground forces in their tribal regions, they wouldn’t have done squat, except scream to the UN. Secretly, they would have loved us to have eliminated their tribal problem.
The thought at the time was Musharraf was too unstable in Pakistan to risk alienating his population, and we needed him as a leader in the region. There are many reasons why this was bad thinking on the Bush Administrations part, not the least of which is evidenced by the fact that Musharraf was ousted anyway.
The world would have said we shouldn’t, but so soon after 9/11 they wouldn’t have hollered too much. We could have gone in, taken OBL et al out, and got out.
Today, we are left with the aftermath of not having the testicular fortitude that would have taken. We have OBL and the Taliban alive and well, with the Taliban increasing it’s influence in Pakistan daily.
We have a President with at best no stomach for a fight, and at worst, Muslim sympathies that isn’t going to do a darn thing about that region, but shake hands.
In the last two days in Pakistan, the Taliban has raided Christian homes and executed two Christians that would not convert to Islam, and executed a man and woman that had been allegedly caught committing adultery. The video of the execution is on the internet, I didn’t post a link to it, but it’s easy to find, if you must see it. To say it’s disturbing is not giving it justice. It was cold blooded in the casualness that the executioner carried out his task of killing this man and woman as they tried to run for their lives. He then was told they weren’t dead, so he calmly walked up to them and riddled their bodies with more bullets.
Word is the Taliban is making a push to rule Pakistan. So we have traded their rule in a poor rather insignificant country like Afghanistan, and possibly given them a nuclear power in Pakistan, not a good trade. On Let’s Make a Deal it would have been taking door #3 and getting the old jalopy, instead of the ‘vette behind door #2.
Obama will not deal with this problem. He will glad hand and apologize and bow down to the Muslim leaders there. He will kill a few Taliban with drone aimed missiles, and appease the UN with sorrowful condemnations of the “people that came before” him, and nothing will be done.
Hopefully, the Pakistani people themselves will see the horror that awaits them if the Taliban comes to power and they will not allow it. I’m not too hopeful about that though….are you?
Cheers!
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