The Pakistan Conundrum

By Scott Ritter

"......Does this mean that the appropriate policy direction of the United States should be to wage war against Pakistan, as we have against the Taliban in Afghanistan? Absolutely not. If anything, the experience of Afghanistan shows that without a doubt the policies embraced by the Bush administration in pursuing its ‘Global War on Terror’ were fundamentally flawed. In the cause and effect world of reality, as opposed to the ‘never-never’ land of neoconservative fantasy, any continued push against Pakistan in the name of the ‘Global War on Terror’ would be extremely counterproductive. Let’s not forget that they have the bomb.

The fact of the matter is that the chief enemy in America’s fight against terrorism, Osama Bin Laden, is a mere propaganda source who is given more legitimacy the more we pursue him. The continued instability in Afghanistan caused by the ongoing American and NATO occupation is the source of much of Pakistan’s current problems. If we truly want to eliminate Osama Bin Laden, we would do well to withdraw from Afghanistan, and work with Iran, Pakistan and the former Soviet Central Asian republics, as well as the Taliban, to bring a sense of normalcy back to this tortured country. In doing so, it would become self-evident to all parties that any continued role on the part of Osama Bin Laden would be self-defeating, and he would be dealt with appropriately by those best equipped to do so......."