After the Bin Laden op, what is the impact? Not on terrorism. Merged thread

[Pete]

JMM, there's about a hundred dudes waitin' on you outside. I'll help you with the first three of em'.

[jmm99]

you'll take three; Todd (your new topkick) will take the next 3; and I will get the hell out of Dodge. I'm too old to take on 1, much less 94.

Leaving you with the immortal words, spoken in spring of 1944, by Juho Paasikivi, as interviewed by John Scott, a Time-Life reporter (with close ties in both Washington and Moscow):

Repeating to me what he had probably told Molotov - a description of what the result would be if Russia overran Finland. Paasikivi stood up, shook a bony finger in the air and said:

We will shoot from behind every stone and tree, we will go on shooting for 50 years. We are not Czechs. We are not Dutchmen. We will fight tooth and nail behind every rock and over the ice of every lake. I will not fight long. I am old, but others will fight.

Now, excuse me while I go to sleep - and I have no idea what this has to do with the ISI; but read my last two posts here, No options are off the table, and The Choice of Law Against Terrorism.

Give me your military observations.

Blame Entropy; he got me going.

Regards

Mike

[Polarbear]

The complicity of the ISI in the Afghan insurgency is evident if one considers the policy of arresting Taliban commanders who are deviating from the agenda of a jihad against the western troops in Afghanistan. One of the most striking examples was the detention of Mullah Beradar last year. Beradar was the number two of the Taliban (although one could say he was rather number one because Mullah Omar has has not been seen nor heard of for a long time...). Beradar was ready for peace talks with the Afghan government. After he had moved between Pakistan and Afghanistan freely the Pakistanis suddenly arrested him, but kept him away from the Americans. I think this arrest should send a strong signal to any of commanders who was thinking about a policy change towards Kabul.
Although I don not have a proof, I personally think that the Pakistanis sold bin Land to the Americans because he was of no value to them any longer. I see his death more as a symbolic success rather than a real tournaround in the struggle against terrorism.

[davidbfpo]

Not something we've seen much in press reporting, apart form the obligatory street protests - what is the Pakistani press/TV saying? Draw your own conclusions:http://www.opendemocracy.net/abbas-z...security-state

OK for economy try these selections:

The very idea behind Pakistan's security state is that civilians are expendable, that there is no need to build civilian institutions because we are permanently invaded and the whole world is our enemy.

(At the end)..the army would not have been able to get away with billions of rupees every year in the name of national security leaving millions of Pakistanis without proper access to education and health. Think about it: 17 million Pakistani kids do not go to school because there are not any they can go to; and one government hospital caters for about half a million Pakistanis.

[Fuchs]

After the Bin Laden op, what is the impact?

Approx. two dozen bad first person shooter games with the UBL kill scenario.

[omarali50]

If you are interested in the Pakistani media, you have to pay attention to what those connected to the pro-jihadi wing of the establishment are saying, not just what the small number of liberal English columnists are saying. for example: http://criticalppp.com/archives/48194

I would add that there IS more criticism of the army and ISI than there has been allowed in the past, and the narrative of ISI as the last line of defence against the CIA is becoming harder to sustain (and is truly contradictory now, since there is at least some part of the establisment that cooperates with the US), but its not like they are giving up.

The sad part is, many of them sincerely believe they are the ones defending the future of Pakistan and its people. Once you accept that the US is trying to destroy Pakistan (and arranged carefully stage-managed fake operations on 9-11 and 5-11 and much else as steps in this nefarious scheme) then preserving the good jihadis and the good taliban is a duty, not a mistake.

[taabistan]

omarali;

If I were the head of the ISI, I would wage war against the U.S., India and the mujahideen network in the much the same way that they are doing so right now.That isn't to say I won't condemn it.