I know sometimes I can be a bit of a blowhard. As liberal as I am at heart, I still bleed red, white and blue. And so I just gotta say, thank God they finally got Osama. But I also want to say: Pakistan has been shitting on us and taking our money for 10 years and it’s gotta stop. There is no way we ought to continue to put up with that.
In today’s New York Times, the Pakistan government, probably as a cover for the extreme embarrassment or, worse, complicity in having the world’s most wanted criminal living in luxury a few miles from their capital and #1 military training center, said that our incursion into their country was a crime, that they would retaliate, and blah blah blah.
Here are the facts: Whether or not a crowd of thugs chanting USA! USA! after somebody gets killed makes you quesy (it makes me quesy), there is simply no doubt that Osama bin Laden was a really messed up, bad guy, who has the blood of thousands, and probably tens of thousands, of human lives on his hands. Not only did he admit (brag) about it, there is, as they say, a preponderance of evidence that he was really and truly behind some very heinous acts of terrorism. Read more at this link about the life and crimes of Bin Laden.
The other interesting fact is that the USA carried out an extra-judicial killing and made it totally public. This is a new MO for us, and obviously I am all for it. I applaud the transparency, and willingness of our President to send real people in to kill him, vs. the bombing the bunker approach most of his aides favored.
But now that Osama dead, where from here?
We’re giving Pakistan $1.5 billion per year. That’s $15 billion dollars since 9-11. What if Obama said in the coming days, “I’ve reviewed the budget, with an eye to fiscal responsibility, and it occurs to me that Pakistan is actually not our friend at all, and in fact is completely playing us for fools.” And then cut that line item? And then gave that money to the American people? We would all get a check for $1,500! Take that Mr. “it’s your money” George Bush!
The whole nature of this “aid” we give their corrupt, lying and inept government is that they are using us as a chess piece in their game against India. All they want is 1) our money, 2) for the current state of chaos to continue forever in a condition where they manage the source of the disruptions as the sponsors, sub rosa, of the Taliban, particularly of the radical, or Al Quada, part of the Taliban.
Bush, who was behind starting this “special relationship,” realized how lame our position was toward the end, and Obama knew it from the beginning, but hasn’t had any cover to get out of it, perhaps, and hopefully, until now. Nor has he had any cover to bail on Afghanistan, again, hopefully, until now.
Karzai is an international criminal, another true bad guy, and not our friend in any way. We need to stop playing nice with Afghanistan and Pakistan, and probably a bunch of other “Stans” as well. Why? Because it’s only going to get worse, so we might as well take our medicine now. We cannot be the world’s policeman, and in that sense I am with Ron Paul.
So Barack Obama, now’s your chance. Get us the hell out.
