The Beginning of the End of the World
We need brains, not brawns:
Musharraf to Karzai
Source: Indo Asian News ServiceIslamabad/New York, Sep 26 (IANS) In a calculated snub to President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has said ‘we need brains, not brawns’ in understanding the region’s environment.
“One has to understand the new environment and then finalise a strategy and take it to the stage of implementation,”Musharraf told a gathering of Pakistanis in New York.He said if there were no understanding of the environment, no strategy could be successful. The bone of contention has been the agreement that Musharraf’s government has signed with the tribal chiefs in Northern Waziristan, the hotbed of Al Qaida and Taliban activities. His remarks come two days before they are scheduled to meet together their common host, US President George W. Bush, when the region’s ‘environment’ would be discussed.
Bush, who has praised both the leaders for their role in fighting terrorism, has indicated that he would try to sort out the differences between the two South Asian leaders who have been engaged in frequent public spats.
US security experts have said that Pakistan’s deal with the pro-Taliban tribals would give a free run to the terror fugitives being hosted by the local tribes in Northern Waziristan.
Karzai has also complained it would give a free run to infiltration into his territory.
But Musharraf contends that he has been able to remove American ‘misconceptions’ during his meeting with Bush last week, when their ‘chemistry’ worked well.
The latest of the spats while both are in the US has been the whereabouts of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and the resurgence of Taliban.
Karzai says Pakistan is behind it, while Musharraf, who did a U-turn in his relations with the Taliban regime in 2001 after supporting it through men, money and material, now says Taliban’s rise was ‘rooted in Afghanistan’.
Little is known about Karzai’s US itinerary while by contrast, Musharraf is on a roller coaster visit, his longest ever, talking to American and Pakistani bodies and promoting his book.
Copyright Indo-Asian News Service
See? This is the beginning of the end. As soon as our “allies” turn on each other and start pointing fingers is when it REALLY starts to fall downhill.
I’ve followed the Afghan-Pakistani situation for some time now. It all just seems like such an exercise in futility.
Oh well. That’s what we get for getting involved in cultures that we don’t understand. I actually have no valid, supportable opinion on the whole mess, other than Bush and Rummy are jackasses who allied themselves with the very same guy who supported (with men, weapons, funds, etc.) the Taliban. War makes for strange bedfellows, I guess. For now, enjoy this tasteful pic of the man we call a friend.
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