And What's Our Excuse?

POTUS does not show much capacity for conducting a war. The overall vision is all that counts. Details - win or lose - are unimportant; merely incidental. My concern is how our mucking around in AfPak will affect the region in general. B. Raman has been wringing his hands for weeks now, believing U.S strategy will affect India adversely. In this he is correct. His mistake is in believing that there actually is a strategy that involves India. I continue to inform him that there is no strategy; that POTUS is simply going through the motions; that POTUS does not care a whit about India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, Israel or anything else; that his primary concern is the war he so doggedly fights against those he perceives as the enemy within our own borders: the Tea Parties and all those who may already have figured out what he‘s up to.

We’ll be out of there next year in any case. The press will paint it as a great achievement; the triumphant fulfillment of a campaign promise. They’ll never set foot in the region again. We won’t know what happens there next; and we won’t care. We’ll have too much on our plates right here at home.

Meanwhile Pakistan and China are growing closer. All kinds of joint infrastructure projects are already well underway, involving roads, ports and railways. I have news for China: They won’t fare any better than we - or the Russians (did when it was their turn). Pakistan is a failed State and will continue to be that. No outside force can turn it around. The best thing for Pakistan would be for everyone to just walk away and leave them to sort out things for themselves. Sure, they’re said to have nukes - and that has been our excuse all along - but I’ll bet you dollars to donuts they don’t work. They’re more likely to blow themselves up before anybody else.

It’s a shame really, Pakistan being what it is: a welfare client. It started out with the same good will and promise as India did. It squandered its opportunity and became an incorrigible child; a throw-back to the 7th Century; a whiner, ill-prepared to change its own diapers. Its troubles - Pakistan’s angrily stunted growth - can be laid directly at the doorstep of Islam.

…and what’s our excuse?

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