Pakistan Is "On The Edge," Says New Intelligence Report

McClatchy Newspapers:

WASHINGTON -- A growing al Qaida-backed insurgency, combined with the Pakistani army's reluctance to launch an all-out crackdown, political infighting and energy and food shortages are plunging America's key ally in the war on terror deeper into turmoil and violence, says a soon-to-be completed U.S. intelligence assessment.

A U.S. official who participated in drafting the top secret National Intelligence Estimate said it portrays the situation in Pakistan as "very bad." Another official called the draft "very bleak," and said it describes Pakistan as being "on the edge."

Read the whole story: McClatchy Newspapers

Comments

[Y2KCockroach]

Oh Jeezuz, ENOUGH!. Let Pakistanis decide what is best for Pakistan, and stop trying to make it into a Middle Eastern version of Nebraska. Pakistanis know what they want, and they are fully capable of figuring it out for themselves. The problems start (and compound) when we think that we can inflict our presence upon them, and somehow get them to think that by toadying to our line they are better off. They are not, and they know it. The United States has its hands full "saving" Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac. Reality check: Pakistan is a lot bigger a problem than Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. Congress needs to spend some time fixing this country before trying to "fix" some other country. Finally, Pakistan is more India's problem than it ever was the U.S.'s (although that never stops us from getting our dirty fingers into everybody else's business). Let India deal with it (hell, they are going to be running the show, along with China, in thirty years anyway; they could use the practice). If anyone in the U.S. thinks that we have the money, the soldiers, and the patience to deal with Pakistan, they need to check into the local sanatorium, and let healthy adults make the decisions for them.

[Ramus]

Trouble is Pakistan has nukes and the means with which to deliver them and the country is in chaos...I hope the Pakistanis can figure it out and if they ask for our help we should see what we can do to help them. It sounds more and more like the government does not have a handle on the situation there. And we know OBL and his merry band are there. It is very very scary.

[Y2KCockroach]

The U.S. doesn't "help" Muslim countries. The U.S. is seen as a form of cancer by those Muslims. And in large part they are correct. We do not "help" other countries by illegal incursions, by political subterfuge, and by carpet-bombing wedding parties. We are there to further our own self-interest, plain and simple. Some people on this board might be too stupid, or deluded to see that, but Muslims by and large don't burden under such misconceived notions (and that is why the Pakistani army is now shooting at our helicopters). They see us for what we are, even though some of us don't. If you want to "help" Pakistan, then go there, and die there. But don''t perpetuate the B.S. that you went there to help them. They don't want us; they cannot stand us; and they would slit our throats in the night, if they got the chance. And for the most part, we deserve it.

[Krikkit]

That would be just fine and dandy if the world hadn't gotten very small since World War II. Pakistan is a nuclear power in case you forgot. If radical Islamists gain control of Pakistan's government (as seems likely) they will have those nukes and that puts the entire region at very grave risk. At the very least this is a legitimate regional concern.

Ask India if it wants the rest of the world to stay out of Pakistan's business. For that matter, ask Indonesia if it also wants the world to stay out of Pakistan's business, as it has its hands full battling Islamists who were trained ideologically and militarily in those same mountainous regions where the Islamists have their strongholds, between Afghanistan and Pakistan. So far Indonesia is winning that war. But what would happen if Pakistan sent one of those nukes to its cohorts in Indonesia?

Hiding your head in your empty wallet won't make those very real problems go away.

[Y2KCockroach]

Pakistanis recognize that theirs is a sovereign country, and that they can determine their own destiny; the problem in large part is that people such as you don't. It is why we are in the mess that we find ourselves. Furthermore, if you ask Indians, they would tell you that it would have wanted America to "stay out of Pakistan's business". India would have wanted for America to not sell billions of dollars in weaponry to Pakistan, for no other reason than to counterbalance India, a country that was no threat to the U.S. India would have wanted the U.S. to refrain from coddling a Pakistani dictator for years; someone who was clearly sympathetic to the radicals in Waziristan. India would have also wanted the U.S. to stay out of other countries' "regional conflicts"; India is more than capable of handling Pakistan, and has done so every previous time Pakistan agitated in the region. And India would want the U.S. to stop giving the Pakistani crazies something to rally around, including the illegal U.S. incursions into Pakistan. The world didn't get small after the second world war; the U.S. got too big.

[gcallaghan]

Republicans = Military Failure

[Carolab]

So, uh, Mission Accomplished?