Obama's Latest Pakistan Stumble
President Obama told the BBC that he wouldn't hesitate to authorize another raid in Pakistan against remaining Al-qaida figures, in a repeat of the Bin Laden execution.
Maybe, if it is possible to live that long, some day some patriot or a true believer in the practice of hubris will explain to me why this was not just the wrong thing for him to say.
I don't see how this will play well at all in Pakistan, or in any of Pakistan's neighbors. The Pakistan military and the country as a whole are already chafing at how their thoughts were totally disregarded during the Bin Laden hit --euphemistically usually referred to as a "raid." One high-ranking Pakistan officer called the killing "cold-blooded," which all the reports received since then have, for all the attempts to put things in the best light, indicate that it certainly was, and that the uniforms went in there not to take Bin Laden alive so that he could go on trial, as even the Israelis did in the case of Adolf Eichmann, that Nazi prison guy that they abducted in Argentina in 1960 and later executed him. Surely the deaths of all those millions of Jews at the hands of Eichmann and others compared with the nearly 3,000 or so American lives lost during 9/11. Instead it seems clear that the Seals always meant to take Bin Laden out on the spot, on the forehead spot. And then, to prevent as many subsequent questions from being asked as they could, they even disposed of his remains in the best Mafia tradition, by quickly dumping his body into the sea clothed, we assume, in concrete boots, before anybody else could get a look.
And this is on top of all the drone strikes that Obama has already authorized in Pakistan and have resulted in a great many deaths, a sizable number of which could not have been the bad guys.
It would seem that Obama would take into serious account how this makes Pakistan look, in its own eyes and in the eyes of those who see themselves connected in various ways with Pakistan and its aspirations.
Another big question about this that I keep wanting to ask, without hope of ever getting a good answer, is, how would Americans react if, say, Pakistan, though it could be Mexico, Nigeria, Ukraine, China, or any other country, were to secretly send teams into Illinois or Kansas to kill or even merely to grab some person against which that country had a grievance and boldly take him out of the U.S. without even a fare-the-well.
The whole country, left and right, would promptly collapse into a big pile of jabbering, slobbering outrage.
So whatever happened to the whole concept of being careful about tit because there is always the possibility of tat, or in this case, respecting someone else's national pride?
Of course, I would've advised Obama to say little and preferably nothing at all about that whole Bin Laden rub-out from the start and just go on to the numerous other crucial matters that are more difficult to solve than is the act of pulling a trigger, while letting the military and even the Republicans take full credit for the Seals' work.
The offing of Bin Laden might've done wonders for his poll numbers, but I don't see how it's going to look at all good on his posterity resume, which is already vaguely starting to take shape on the horizon. Posterity is unable to feel any of the burning heat of blood revenge, you know. Instead it would have much preferred to hear Laden's last words.
Maybe, if it is possible to live that long, some day some patriot or a true believer in the practice of hubris will explain to me why this was not just the wrong thing for him to say.
I don't see how this will play well at all in Pakistan, or in any of Pakistan's neighbors. The Pakistan military and the country as a whole are already chafing at how their thoughts were totally disregarded during the Bin Laden hit --euphemistically usually referred to as a "raid." One high-ranking Pakistan officer called the killing "cold-blooded," which all the reports received since then have, for all the attempts to put things in the best light, indicate that it certainly was, and that the uniforms went in there not to take Bin Laden alive so that he could go on trial, as even the Israelis did in the case of Adolf Eichmann, that Nazi prison guy that they abducted in Argentina in 1960 and later executed him. Surely the deaths of all those millions of Jews at the hands of Eichmann and others compared with the nearly 3,000 or so American lives lost during 9/11. Instead it seems clear that the Seals always meant to take Bin Laden out on the spot, on the forehead spot. And then, to prevent as many subsequent questions from being asked as they could, they even disposed of his remains in the best Mafia tradition, by quickly dumping his body into the sea clothed, we assume, in concrete boots, before anybody else could get a look.
And this is on top of all the drone strikes that Obama has already authorized in Pakistan and have resulted in a great many deaths, a sizable number of which could not have been the bad guys.
It would seem that Obama would take into serious account how this makes Pakistan look, in its own eyes and in the eyes of those who see themselves connected in various ways with Pakistan and its aspirations.
Another big question about this that I keep wanting to ask, without hope of ever getting a good answer, is, how would Americans react if, say, Pakistan, though it could be Mexico, Nigeria, Ukraine, China, or any other country, were to secretly send teams into Illinois or Kansas to kill or even merely to grab some person against which that country had a grievance and boldly take him out of the U.S. without even a fare-the-well.
The whole country, left and right, would promptly collapse into a big pile of jabbering, slobbering outrage.
So whatever happened to the whole concept of being careful about tit because there is always the possibility of tat, or in this case, respecting someone else's national pride?
Of course, I would've advised Obama to say little and preferably nothing at all about that whole Bin Laden rub-out from the start and just go on to the numerous other crucial matters that are more difficult to solve than is the act of pulling a trigger, while letting the military and even the Republicans take full credit for the Seals' work.
The offing of Bin Laden might've done wonders for his poll numbers, but I don't see how it's going to look at all good on his posterity resume, which is already vaguely starting to take shape on the horizon. Posterity is unable to feel any of the burning heat of blood revenge, you know. Instead it would have much preferred to hear Laden's last words.
posted by Carl (aka Sofarsogoo) | 2:51 PM
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