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Dangerous 'ally' Pakistan's killing us
Alan Howe
From: Herald Sun
SERGEANT Brett Wood died last week nobly trying to secure the future and safety of Afghanistan. He was almost certainly killed by Pakistan, our "Commonwealth brothers" to whom the concept of noble is foreign.
'Are we friends?" asked Pakistan cricket legend and opposition politician Imran Khan on Friday.
He was talking about the US raid that dispatched Osama bin Laden to the afterlife.
Well, are we friends? Are the members of the Coalition of The Willing, who are defending the West at the grassroots level against terrorism, friends of Pakistan?
It's a very good question. And it is about time someone so publicly asked it and sought an answer.
Pakistan is a wretched, ungrateful and perhaps ungovernable country sitting geographically and strategically at the centre of the War on Terror.
While Pakistan proclaims that it, too, fights this war, broad elements of its defence forces - some trained here by us - assist those who fight and kill us. Pakistan is a dangerous "ally"; a confused nation ruled mostly by manipulative opportunists of whom we must be wary.
The arrogant Imran Khan wishes to be Prime Minister, but he is hardly an inspiring leader. He may yet prove also to be quite dangerous.
He sees modern Pakistan - its only obvious concession to modernity might be a nuclear capability - through the aged and cracked lens of colonial politics.
Those days live on only through the Queen's valueless and embarrassing glee club, the Commonwealth, and the handful of countries, including Australia, that humiliate themselves by insisting that only Her Majesty is qualified to head their state.
Even Pakistan is a republic.
Imran Khan is as hard to pin down as the nation he plans to lead.
When the reassuring news that the world's most wanted - Osama bin Laden - had been killed in a surgical strike in Khan's backyard, he was ropeable.
The US had breached Pakistan's sovereignty. It should have informed the Pakistan government of Osama bin Laden's whereabouts and left it to complete the mission, he claimed.
He must be joking.
Pakistan's defence forces are among the most treacherous on the planet. Like all strata of government in that land, they are corrupted at the highest levels, which the would-be leader Khan readily acknowledges.
When the news of bin Laden's execution broke on May 2, a theatrically distressed Khan was on television condemning the US, while admitting that Pakistan should be embarrassed that bin Laden lived anonymously among his countrymen.
"Why did they not just capture Osama bin Laden and put in him on trial?" asked the man who intends to control his country from 2013.
He was talking on local television at the time.
Okay, he's only a cricketer, but how dumb is this bloke?
Listen here, Imran: You can't fight the brain-squirming worst of your religion in the courts.
Islam's most sneeringly evil adherents - you'd know a few - fight on other fronts.
In any case, days later, he had changed his tune. "Yes, Osama bin Laden should have been killed." Now he was talking to the BBC; a different audience that Khan clearly felt needed a different message. If nothing else, he has politics down pat.
Khan said he'd reject western aid to his country. "We don't want your aid, we don't want your army of 7000 Rambos that are roaming around - CIA operators - shooting people in Pakistan," is how he insultingly dismisses those, including Australians, who are committed to helping raise Pakistan from the sixth century.
Pulling out of Afghanistan are the Canadians, Poles, Germans, Dutch and soon the US and Britain. Let's join them.
Sergeant Brett Wood was the 24th Australian to die in Afghanistan and we need to make sure he's the last, because much of that death toll can be laid at the foot of Pakistan.
Our enemies in that region are embedded in Islam, not Afghanistan. The country is merely a subset of the forces with which we are at war.
Matt Waldman, a Harvard University security analyst, has been writing about the criminally close ties that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency has with the Taliban. Last year he claimed that Benazir Bhutto's widower and now Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari met Taliban leaders in jail to assure them of his support. It is also claimed that Pakistan security services are supplying the sophisticated and difficult-to-detect mostly plastic detonators setting off those roadside bombs, like the one that killed Sgt Wood.
Pashtuns are the problem. There may be up to 50 million of these Sunni Muslims living across the porous border regions in Pakistan's north and spreading up towards Afghanistan.
The Taliban we oppose in Afghanistan come from them.
In turn they are trained, armed and fed by their allies, the Pakistani armed forces.
When the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, it was recognised by just three countries. Pakistan was one.
In October, Perth hosts the Commonwealth Heads of Government Conference.
This most pointlessly shameful gathering of world leaders will be headed by the Queen of Australia. Many of the poorest, most violent and most unstable nations on earth, where humans have the shortest and most brutal lives are, or have been, members.
Nothing will be done for them. Their problems won't trouble the agenda.
It's not clear yet whether Pakistan will be represented by President Zardari, or Prime Minister Syed Gilliani.
Neither will the Queen or any Commonwealth nation raise the issue of Pakistan's involvement in the deaths of so many coalition servicemen in Afghanistan.
We arrived there after 2752 innocents died on September 11, 2001. So far 2452 allied soldiers have been killed as we seek to root out Islamic extremists from the region. Among those sacrificed have been 365 Britons, 155 Canadians, 24 Australians and two New Zealanders. Commonwealth citizens all.
The Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Kamalesh Sharma, an Indian, wants a more inclusive CHOGM in Australia and he asks that you email him with ideas for the meeting's agenda.
Here's a few: Why shouldn't Pakistan be expelled from the Commonwealth given its role in the deaths of so many young Commonwealth soldiers? What is President Zardari doing to prevent his defence forces from supplying and training the Taliban? What measures is Pakistan taking to control the Pashtun-supported Taliban in his country? Why did elements of the Pakistan defence forces hide Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad? Why did Pakistani security agencies help plan the 2008 terrorist attacks on Mumbai that killed 166?
Dangerous 'ally' Pakistan's killing us | Herald Sun
Alan Howe
From: Herald Sun
SERGEANT Brett Wood died last week nobly trying to secure the future and safety of Afghanistan. He was almost certainly killed by Pakistan, our "Commonwealth brothers" to whom the concept of noble is foreign.
'Are we friends?" asked Pakistan cricket legend and opposition politician Imran Khan on Friday.
He was talking about the US raid that dispatched Osama bin Laden to the afterlife.
Well, are we friends? Are the members of the Coalition of The Willing, who are defending the West at the grassroots level against terrorism, friends of Pakistan?
It's a very good question. And it is about time someone so publicly asked it and sought an answer.
Pakistan is a wretched, ungrateful and perhaps ungovernable country sitting geographically and strategically at the centre of the War on Terror.
While Pakistan proclaims that it, too, fights this war, broad elements of its defence forces - some trained here by us - assist those who fight and kill us. Pakistan is a dangerous "ally"; a confused nation ruled mostly by manipulative opportunists of whom we must be wary.
The arrogant Imran Khan wishes to be Prime Minister, but he is hardly an inspiring leader. He may yet prove also to be quite dangerous.
He sees modern Pakistan - its only obvious concession to modernity might be a nuclear capability - through the aged and cracked lens of colonial politics.
Those days live on only through the Queen's valueless and embarrassing glee club, the Commonwealth, and the handful of countries, including Australia, that humiliate themselves by insisting that only Her Majesty is qualified to head their state.
Even Pakistan is a republic.
Imran Khan is as hard to pin down as the nation he plans to lead.
When the reassuring news that the world's most wanted - Osama bin Laden - had been killed in a surgical strike in Khan's backyard, he was ropeable.
The US had breached Pakistan's sovereignty. It should have informed the Pakistan government of Osama bin Laden's whereabouts and left it to complete the mission, he claimed.
He must be joking.
Pakistan's defence forces are among the most treacherous on the planet. Like all strata of government in that land, they are corrupted at the highest levels, which the would-be leader Khan readily acknowledges.
When the news of bin Laden's execution broke on May 2, a theatrically distressed Khan was on television condemning the US, while admitting that Pakistan should be embarrassed that bin Laden lived anonymously among his countrymen.
"Why did they not just capture Osama bin Laden and put in him on trial?" asked the man who intends to control his country from 2013.
He was talking on local television at the time.
Okay, he's only a cricketer, but how dumb is this bloke?
Listen here, Imran: You can't fight the brain-squirming worst of your religion in the courts.
Islam's most sneeringly evil adherents - you'd know a few - fight on other fronts.
In any case, days later, he had changed his tune. "Yes, Osama bin Laden should have been killed." Now he was talking to the BBC; a different audience that Khan clearly felt needed a different message. If nothing else, he has politics down pat.
Khan said he'd reject western aid to his country. "We don't want your aid, we don't want your army of 7000 Rambos that are roaming around - CIA operators - shooting people in Pakistan," is how he insultingly dismisses those, including Australians, who are committed to helping raise Pakistan from the sixth century.
Pulling out of Afghanistan are the Canadians, Poles, Germans, Dutch and soon the US and Britain. Let's join them.
Sergeant Brett Wood was the 24th Australian to die in Afghanistan and we need to make sure he's the last, because much of that death toll can be laid at the foot of Pakistan.
Our enemies in that region are embedded in Islam, not Afghanistan. The country is merely a subset of the forces with which we are at war.
Matt Waldman, a Harvard University security analyst, has been writing about the criminally close ties that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency has with the Taliban. Last year he claimed that Benazir Bhutto's widower and now Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari met Taliban leaders in jail to assure them of his support. It is also claimed that Pakistan security services are supplying the sophisticated and difficult-to-detect mostly plastic detonators setting off those roadside bombs, like the one that killed Sgt Wood.
Pashtuns are the problem. There may be up to 50 million of these Sunni Muslims living across the porous border regions in Pakistan's north and spreading up towards Afghanistan.
The Taliban we oppose in Afghanistan come from them.
In turn they are trained, armed and fed by their allies, the Pakistani armed forces.
When the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, it was recognised by just three countries. Pakistan was one.
In October, Perth hosts the Commonwealth Heads of Government Conference.
This most pointlessly shameful gathering of world leaders will be headed by the Queen of Australia. Many of the poorest, most violent and most unstable nations on earth, where humans have the shortest and most brutal lives are, or have been, members.
Nothing will be done for them. Their problems won't trouble the agenda.
It's not clear yet whether Pakistan will be represented by President Zardari, or Prime Minister Syed Gilliani.
Neither will the Queen or any Commonwealth nation raise the issue of Pakistan's involvement in the deaths of so many coalition servicemen in Afghanistan.
We arrived there after 2752 innocents died on September 11, 2001. So far 2452 allied soldiers have been killed as we seek to root out Islamic extremists from the region. Among those sacrificed have been 365 Britons, 155 Canadians, 24 Australians and two New Zealanders. Commonwealth citizens all.
The Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Kamalesh Sharma, an Indian, wants a more inclusive CHOGM in Australia and he asks that you email him with ideas for the meeting's agenda.
Here's a few: Why shouldn't Pakistan be expelled from the Commonwealth given its role in the deaths of so many young Commonwealth soldiers? What is President Zardari doing to prevent his defence forces from supplying and training the Taliban? What measures is Pakistan taking to control the Pashtun-supported Taliban in his country? Why did elements of the Pakistan defence forces hide Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad? Why did Pakistani security agencies help plan the 2008 terrorist attacks on Mumbai that killed 166?
Dangerous 'ally' Pakistan's killing us | Herald Sun
