My previous comments about the ability for the Taliban to make inroads into the non-tribal regions may be undermined by this. It's not enough that the Taliban have adopted the regular party line religious elements, but adding a marxist re-distribution of wealth argument could have a profound impact on the over 100 million people living at or below poverty in the country (and the millions in the Punjab region)...
Seriously, this situation getting scary fast. I'm even beginning to wonder if the tipping point has already been reached and that collapse is inevitable. Is that like the Chinese Revolution in which an overly funded yet corrupt and inept government couldn't halt a revolution sweeping the peasantry? If so, there's little we can do to induce the Pakistani Gov't to "not be corrupt," and might be high time for us to identify where their nukes are and take them out...Obviously an operation that India would be interested in doing as well (since they're the most likely to feel the effects).
We need to identify if this is a failed state and quickly. We also need to seriously consider whether the zillions of dollars that we're about to give them for weaponry is going to be later used to arm our enemies.
Even if it is a failed state, I don't know what we can do about it. It's not like it's Afghanistan. Commander Zero was ready for the overland invasion from Afghanistan to Pakistan during the campaign, but when push comes to shove I seem him running away, and am not sure what we would accomplish with an invasion anyway outside of an Iraq-insurgency type situation times 10. I think the only course would be to watch an be ready for violent interdiction of threats and then quick extraction, working with India. I don't see Zero coming through on that either.
ReplyDeleteI think WTF is the best way to describe the crisis.
ReplyDeleteI don't propose any type of "occupation" of Pakistan whatsoever, if Pakistan falls we need to bug out of Afghanistan pure and simple. What I do propose is for us to wipe out their nuclear weapons, air-force, and missile forces in our exit from the area.