Pakistan Yet Another Republican Foreign Policy Blunder
With rumors and speculation rampant about Benazir Bhutto's assassination and what it means for Pakistan, there are experienced, objective cooler heads with intelligent, thoughtful analysis about the situation
Here are a few that are important to check out:
Laura Rozen at Mother Jones interviews a former intelligence official who discusses Bhutto, including the negative perception that she was the "darling of the American government."
An excellent interview in early October by Josh Marshall at TPMtv with Pakistan expert Barnard Rubin is even more germane now.
Also, Spencer Ackerman at TPM talked with Barnard Rubin yesterday who again provided insight on the situation in Pakistan.
Juan Cole has an article in Salon, "With Bhutto gone, does Bush have a Plan B?" which examines Bush fighting a war on two fronts while coddling the Pakistani dictator and bringing back Bhutto to strengthen Musharraf's legitimacy and how Bush's failures in that region compound US problems.
Cole also has two other brief articles worth perusing: yesterday's article on the assassination and today's article on Pakistan post assassination that includes this relevant reminder of US rightwing ignorance, "I am appalled by the rightwing US pundits who are taking advantage of Bhutto's assassination to blame 'the people of Pakistan' for 'extremism.' "
These rightwing pundits are so ignorant about even modern United States history and its assassinations: John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, the attempted assassination of Reagan, etc.
Yesterday, in my post, "Bhutto's Assassination Puts Bush, Condi and other Bushites In A Pickle," I wrote, "The Bush administration is infamous both for its lack of an intelligent, historically aware, 21st century cohesive foreign policy and its last minute, incompetent, throwing-oil-on-fire, ad hoc foreign policy machinations." (Where is Condi during this situation; catching a Broadway play or shopping for shoes?)
The inimitable Digby sheds more light on that subject in her post "Pakistan Crisis For Dummies." Digby had bookmarked a Washington Post article from this summer that is relevant to the Bush administration's clueless foreign policy, or lack of any coherent foreign policy, towards Pakistan. Here some pertinent passages from the Post article:
"The problem is exacerbated by a dramatic drop-off in U.S. expertise on Pakistan. Retired American officials say that, for the first time in U.S. history, nobody with serious Pakistan experience is working in the South Asia bureau of the State Department, on State's policy planning staff, on the National Security Council staff or even in Vice President Cheney's office. Anne W. Patterson, the new U.S. ambassador to Islamabad, is an expert on Latin American "drugs and thugs"; Richard A. Boucher, the assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs, is a former department spokesman who served three tours in Hong Kong and China but never was posted in South Asia. "They know nothing of Pakistan," a former senior U.S. diplomat said. [Underline emphasis mine]
"Current and past U.S. officials tell me that Pakistan policy is essentially being run from Cheney's office. The vice president, they say, is close to Musharraf and refuses to brook any U.S. criticism of him. This all fits; in recent months, I'm told, Pakistani opposition politicians visiting Washington have been ushered in to meet Cheney's aides, rather than taken to the State Department.
"No one in Foggy Bottom seems willing to question Cheney's decisions......."
So the clueless Bush administration has no one with real Pakistan experience in the State Department's South Asia bureau, or on State's policy planning staff, or on the National Security Council staff, or in the Vice President's office, for the first time in United States history. And Cheney is running Pakistan policy!
Doesn't that just inspire complete confidence?
Here are a few that are important to check out:
Laura Rozen at Mother Jones interviews a former intelligence official who discusses Bhutto, including the negative perception that she was the "darling of the American government."
An excellent interview in early October by Josh Marshall at TPMtv with Pakistan expert Barnard Rubin is even more germane now.
Also, Spencer Ackerman at TPM talked with Barnard Rubin yesterday who again provided insight on the situation in Pakistan.
Juan Cole has an article in Salon, "With Bhutto gone, does Bush have a Plan B?" which examines Bush fighting a war on two fronts while coddling the Pakistani dictator and bringing back Bhutto to strengthen Musharraf's legitimacy and how Bush's failures in that region compound US problems.
Cole also has two other brief articles worth perusing: yesterday's article on the assassination and today's article on Pakistan post assassination that includes this relevant reminder of US rightwing ignorance, "I am appalled by the rightwing US pundits who are taking advantage of Bhutto's assassination to blame 'the people of Pakistan' for 'extremism.' "
These rightwing pundits are so ignorant about even modern United States history and its assassinations: John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, the attempted assassination of Reagan, etc.
Yesterday, in my post, "Bhutto's Assassination Puts Bush, Condi and other Bushites In A Pickle," I wrote, "The Bush administration is infamous both for its lack of an intelligent, historically aware, 21st century cohesive foreign policy and its last minute, incompetent, throwing-oil-on-fire, ad hoc foreign policy machinations." (Where is Condi during this situation; catching a Broadway play or shopping for shoes?)
The inimitable Digby sheds more light on that subject in her post "Pakistan Crisis For Dummies." Digby had bookmarked a Washington Post article from this summer that is relevant to the Bush administration's clueless foreign policy, or lack of any coherent foreign policy, towards Pakistan. Here some pertinent passages from the Post article:
"The roots of the crisis go back to the blind bargain Washington made after 9/11 with the regime that had heretofore been the Taliban's main patron: ignoring Musharraf's despotism in return for his promises to crack down on al-Qaeda and cut the Taliban loose. Today, despite $10 billion in U.S. aid to Pakistan since 2001, that bargain is in tatters; the Taliban is resurgent in Afghanistan, and al-Qaeda's senior leadership has set up another haven inside Pakistan's chaotic border regions.
"The problem is exacerbated by a dramatic drop-off in U.S. expertise on Pakistan. Retired American officials say that, for the first time in U.S. history, nobody with serious Pakistan experience is working in the South Asia bureau of the State Department, on State's policy planning staff, on the National Security Council staff or even in Vice President Cheney's office. Anne W. Patterson, the new U.S. ambassador to Islamabad, is an expert on Latin American "drugs and thugs"; Richard A. Boucher, the assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs, is a former department spokesman who served three tours in Hong Kong and China but never was posted in South Asia. "They know nothing of Pakistan," a former senior U.S. diplomat said. [Underline emphasis mine]
"Current and past U.S. officials tell me that Pakistan policy is essentially being run from Cheney's office. The vice president, they say, is close to Musharraf and refuses to brook any U.S. criticism of him. This all fits; in recent months, I'm told, Pakistani opposition politicians visiting Washington have been ushered in to meet Cheney's aides, rather than taken to the State Department.
"No one in Foggy Bottom seems willing to question Cheney's decisions......."
So the clueless Bush administration has no one with real Pakistan experience in the State Department's South Asia bureau, or on State's policy planning staff, or on the National Security Council staff, or in the Vice President's office, for the first time in United States history. And Cheney is running Pakistan policy!
Doesn't that just inspire complete confidence?
Posted by Kaz at 12/28/2007 3:59 PM 
Categories: Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan, Bush, Global Engagement, Republicans, Foreign Policy
Categories: Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan, Bush, Global Engagement, Republicans, Foreign Policy
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