Saleem Shahzad's last interview: http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?...4&jumival=6802
I was talking to an old friend yesterday and he made this point: WITHIN Pakistna, the Pakistani army has the remarkable ability to create a public relations victory out of every disaster. They did so in 1965. It took them a few years, but they recovered from 1971 enough to launch a semi-popular coup in 1977. They lost in Kargil, but within a few months the person kicked out was Nawaz Sharif and the architect of Kargil became an initially popular coup leader. They were shocked by the American response to 9-11 but they have never given up hope that they can make an omelette out of broken eggs on this occasion as well and at a personal level, they certainly made a lot of money out of this setback to their regional jihadi dreams.
It might be a mistake to assume that they are going to fall apart after Abbotabad and Mehran. Already, they have managed to blame the civilian govt and its issuance of "visas to Americans" for the loss of Bin Laden. The Mehran base humiliation is to be blamed on 6 Americans who were "mysteriously" in the base that night and who even more "mysteriously" disappeared the next day. i am not kidding. That is the scenario being presented on pro-military websites, complete with vague hints that "Blackwater" was involved.
Saleem Shahzad had blown the lid off that attempt at blaming the CIA and RAW and probably got whacked for his pains (maybe the plan was not to kill him, but to torture him to teach him a lesson..the poor sod died under torture...weak heart? who knows). My point is, it aint over till the fat lady sings. And when it comes to Pak army psyops, it aint over even then. Like the Black Knight in Monty Python, we are never defeated....
More seriously, I think they ARE in trouble right now and dont know how to get out of it. The traditional way to get out of trouble in Pakistan has been to blame India and raise the flag of Islam. Since that connects well with the two-nation theory and the (shallow, but wide) national narrative built around that blessed theory, the army has always managed to grab the propaganda initiative. But there are problems now. e.g., even the clueless infidels are beginning to figure out that these two old reliable methods also lead to other less desirable consequences. And of course, the jihadists have the high ground on Islam, so the army is in a serious bind. They need a new script and they dont have script writers who can write it. This time, they are losing control of the narrative. And I get the impression that nobody knows what comes next.
What may save them is that the infidels will panic and throw money at them. That always seems to take away the pain for a while.
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