Monday, June 4, 2012

They Need Us More Than We Need Them

China is cosying up to Pakistan...

Sensing an opening, China’s foreign minister, Yang Jiechi, is leading a high-level delegation to Pakistan’s capital. This is how the Pakistani press described Yang’s visit:
Yang met President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and held formal talks with Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar. He is also scheduled to meet Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani today.
At a joint news conference with his Pakistani counterpart, the Chinese foreign minister threw his country’s weight behind Pakistan’s efforts to safeguard its sovereignty, security, territorial integrity and dignity. (China Cosies up to Pakistan)
Our policy should be a modified Henny Youngman-Brer Rabbit Gambit.  It goes something like this:

“No, No, please China! Don’t take our friend Pakistan away from us! Please!”

“Please Pakistan, don’t run into the arms of China…”


Heh heh heh…

The dirty little secret is that us leaving Afghanistan and telling Pakistan what they can do to themselves and their Taliban friends creates a big mess for China, Russia and Pakistan. We leave, but there’s still the gaping open wound of murder, superstition, corruption and stupidity that we foolishly thought we could heal. And it’s on China’s doorstep and Putin’s “near abroad.”

Pakistan needs our billions. Why do you think we are still there, conducting drone strikes with impunity? Do you really believe Pakistan government statements about them being mad at us for conducting them? We’re doing it all from one of their military bases! We would be gone today, or our personnel there jailed if we were really violating the wishes of the Pakistan government. 

 It’s a cynical, hypocritical game, and we need to cash in our chips and wish them all a nice life.

25 comments:

Ducky's here said...

Long live the Great Game.

MathewK said...

You should be helping the Indians out, they know how to deal with those paki shits. Bush knew this and made a lot of progress when he was president.

Then the idiot came with his old leftwing theories about screwing over friends and sucking up to enemies and bungled it all up.

Anonymous said...

I agree with RWT, Also, I think Paskistan is play both side against the middle. Sure they like our money but they know and want the Taliban to regain power in Afghanistan. China and Russia will be willing to pay great sums to the Taliban for their cooperation. The USGS discovered huge lithium deposits in Afghanistan that China wants to exploit. North of Afghanistan in the Caspian Sea region there are enormous amounts of natural resources, including gas and oil, that Russia would like to transport across Afkhanistan and Pakistan to open sea ports. So, I'm not sure Pakistan needs us more than we need them.

Ducky's here said...

Pakistan only needs to play us as a foil to India.

It's a mug's game.

Z said...

Ducky's bringing India into this applies, I think, SF. some say all we'd have to do is mention INDIA and Pakistan scrambles.
Where do you think India fits into your China/Russia scenario which makes such sense?...are they sitting back laughing at the whole game?

Do we send money to India, too, by the way?

Silverfiddle said...

India and the US have been cosying up to one another. It appears to be a reality-based, adult relationship, and we should continue fostering it.

India is also proving a lot of aid and assistance to Afghanistan, which Pakistan does not like.

Infidel de Manahatta said...

Pakistan was a temporary alliance at best in the days immediately after 9/11. It's time to ditch this country of murderers and losers. India is our natural ally not Pakistan.

Bunkerville said...

Let them all have at it and have a great day.

Jersey McJones said...

RWT, as Silver points out, the Obama administration has been working very well with India. I think you're just inventing crazy Obama Derangement bullshit.

JMJ

viburnum said...

Infidel: "Pakistan was a temporary alliance at best in the days immediately after 9/11."

I'd love to know the details of how that came about too. My hunch has always been that they made Musharraf the proverbial 'offer he couldn't refuse".

I'm with you though SF. It' s long past time to leave.

Z said...

http://news.yahoo.com/pakistan-condemns-u-drone-strikes-154652091.html


What are we supposed to believe?

Ducky's here said...

Why do we think India would be any better a partner than Pakistan.

The government is just as corrupt.
They aren't likely to be much of an ally.

The region is a larger sink hole than the Mideast. We know how little allies there are worth.

FreeThinke said...

Other than helping Muslim radicals take over the countries that were once on good relations with the US and turning his back on Israel, does anybody know what Obama's foreign policies really are ??

Anonymous said...

It's always such a joy to hear from Canardo, isn't it?

The Little Mary Sunshine of the Internet!

What fun it must be to live right in the epicenter of impending disaster -- The Dome of the Home of the Doom Room!

All these speculations eminds me of a song made popular by The Kingston Trio when I was in high school -- some seven hundred years ago.

THE MERRY MINUET

They're rioting in Africa
TRA la tra la tra la LA!
They're starving in Spain
TRA la tra la tra LA!

There're hurricanes in Florida
TRA la tra la tra la LA!
And Texas needs rain
TRA la tra la tra LA!

The whole world is festering
With unhappy souls --
The French hate the Germans
The Germans hate the Poles.
The Italians hate the Yugoslavs
South Africans hate the Dutch
And I don't like anybody very much!

But we should be grateful
And faithful and proud
For Man's been endowed
With a Mushroom-Shaped Cloud!

And we know that someone
On some happy day
Will push the red button
And we'll all be blown away!

They're rioting in Africa
TRA la tra la tra la LA!
There's strife in Iran
TRA la tra la tra LA!

What Nature doesn't do to us
TRA la tra la tra la LA!
Will be done by out fellow man!


~ Sheldon Harnick

The adage is proved true once again:

The more things change, the more they remain the same.

The cast members may be different in each succeeding generation, but it's same tired old tragedy any way you slice it.

~ FreeThinke

Finntann said...

The US is ranked 24th with a score of 7.1 while India is ranked 95th with a score of 3.1 (10 being least corrupt, 0 being most corrupt) by Transparency International.

Now... the question is... is India more corrupt? Or are we more naive and our politicians better at hiding it?

Just a thought!

Cheers!

Silverfiddle said...

Finn: Reminds me of a conversation I had with a Latin American supreme court justice in his home many years ago. He explained that in his country and others, they pass bribes under the table. In the United States, he further explained, they codify the corruption into law.

viburnum said...

Thanks FT! I haven't thought of that tune in decades, and now it's going to be playing continuously in my head until I drag out a guitar and exorcize it. LOL

Too late now, I'd wake the wife :-(

KP said...

FT, digging out some Sheldon Harnick stuff!

KP said...

FT, I just happen to be listening to the Kinks and Ray Davies lyrics from almost 30 years ago in "Live Life":

Trendy intellectuals always take action,
For every cause that's ever been in fashion
Weekend revolutionaries protest and sing
Because they're dedicated followers of any old thing
They got every solution for every revolution
They live in the slums just like the poor people do
But they'd rather sniff coke instead of glue
Right-wing fascists beat up the blacks
Then they salute the Union Jack
You can't pretend there's nothing wrong
It's not the end, so just carry on

viburnum said...

FT: "The cast members may be different in each succeeding generation, but it's same tired old tragedy any way you slice it."

Yep. I couldn't watch the news about the Occupy crowd without hearing this one in my head.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErPywgiMb4k

There's a place in the world for the angry young man
With his working class ties and his radical plans
He refuses to bend, he refuses to crawl,
He's always at home with his back to the wall.
And he's proud of his scars and the battles he's lost,
He struggles and bleeds as he hangs on the cross-
And he likes to be known as the angry young man.


Give a moment or two to the angry young man,
With his foot in his mouth and his heart in his hand.
He's been stabbed in the back, he's been misunderstood,
It's a comfort to know his intentions are good.
He sits in a room with a lock on the door,
With his maps and his medals laid out on the floor
And he likes to be known as the angry young man.

I believe I've passed the age of consciousness & righteous rage
I found that just surviving was a noble fight.
I once believed in causes too, I had my pointless point of view,
Life went on no matter who was wrong or right, ohhhhh

And there's always a place for the angry young man,
With his fist in the air and his head in the sand.
And he's never been able to learn from mistakes,
He can't understand why his heart always breaks.
His honor is pure and his courage as well,
He's fair and he's true and he's boring as hell!
And he'll go to the grave as an angry old man.

Whoa, and there's always a place for the angry young man
With his working class ties and his radical plans
He refuses to bend, he refuses to crawl,
He's always at home with his back to the wall.
And he's proud of his scars and the battles he's lost,
He struggles and bleeds ‘til he hangs on the cross
And he likes to be known as the angry young man.

Billy Joel

Ducky's here said...

What's next, Geddy Lee singing Trees?

Les Carpenter said...

"Pakistan needs our billions. Why do you think we are still there, conducting drone strikes with impunity?"

Because we're stupid?

viburnum said...

Ducky: "What's next, Geddy Lee singing Trees?"

Nah Beamish did that the other day. I was thinking more along the lines of some sage advice from the Eagles.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6Y4s7WbM3c

Fredd said...

Just for the record, Geddy Lee doesn't really 'sing.' I would call what he does 'squeaking.'

Anonymous said...

Leave it to Canardo to make reference to some ungodly piece of shit:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWkcKJmHZ2Y

As with much "modern" pop music, the words may make sense when isolated from the "music," but the latter is so incredibly ugly, demented and perverse it literally drowns out and kills whatever may be worthwhile about the words.

"Modern" pop music is weirdly comparable to Islam in that it uses sophisticated 20th-century technology to express and make manifest a speedy regression to the darkest extremes of barbarism and primitivism.

It appeals to an untutored infantile state that, unfortunately, never leaves us completely.

~ FreeThinke