PAKISTAN SUPPORTS TERRORISM

Leon Panetta declares it is difficult to achieve peace in Afghanistan as long as there is safe haven for terrorists in Pakistan. It is very important for Pakistan to take steps. It is an increasing concern, the issue of safe haven, and Uncle Sam is reaching the limits of his patience. Hillary Clinton declares Uncle Sam will always maintain his right to use force against groups such as al Qaeda that have attacked him and still threaten him with imminent attack.


Pakistan is a terrorist nation. Pakistanis believe Mohammed who promised 72 virgins in heaven for each martyr! From the very beginning, the partnership between the US and Pakistan has been a marriage of convenience. Pervez Musharraf asserts it was a forced marriage. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage warned Pakistan shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, to be prepared to be bombed, to be prepared to go back to the Stone Age! 

In the fall of 2001, Americans toppled the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. Pakistan had previously helped to install the Taliban in power because it viewed it as an ally against its archenemy, India. So the end of the Taliban also meant the collapse of Pakistan's defensive strategy. Since then, Islamabad has worried that the US could hand over Pakistani intelligence to India. http://venitism.blogspot.com

Panetta says Uncle Sam is reaching the limits of his patience for that reason. It is extremely important for Pakistan to take action to prevent giving the Haqqanis safe havens, and for terrorists to use Pakistan as a safety net to conduct attacks on American forces. Panetta blames Haqqanis for an attack last week on an American base in the east. Insurgents take advantage of the steep, forested terrain and the Pakistani border to launch attacks and then slip back.

Pakistan's strategy is supporting terrorists that attack India. Pakistan's nebulous position toward the Taliban led to circumstances in which the world's most wanted terrorist could reside safely under the nose of the military for six years. Al-Qaeda has links to the Taliban and to terrorists that target India. Thus Pakistan's soft stance toward these groups ends up facilitating al-Qaeda and its agenda. Indeed, bin Laden struck a deal with Pakistan's military leadership to ensure his safety in the country. This speaks volumes about the Pakistan's dual policies on terrorism. 

Pakistan closed the shorter and cheaper routes for NATO troops through its territory last year. Resupplying troops in Afghanistan through the Northern Distribution Network is about two and a half times more expensive than shipping items through Pakistan.

The Pakistan-based Haqqani, a veritable arm of Pakistan's intelligence agency, attacks U.S. embassies. While Haqqani have conducted attacks against U.S. and NATO soldiers in the past, embassy attacks now represent an escalation against U.S. Pakistan's support of insurgent groups and terrorists is the most significant obstacle to achieving stability in the area.

Panetta has made clear time and time again, and will continue to make clear, that it is an intolerable situation to have insurgents attacking our people, our forces and to have the convenience of being able to return to safe havens in Pakistan. Pakistan has strong traditional links with the Taliban and other terrorist groups. 

Pakistan is a society based on tribal groups. Each clan maintains a complicated network of relations, like a mafia. Under these conditions, it hardly seems imaginable that Osama bin Laden could have spent years living unnoticed just a stone's throw away from Pakistan's most elite military academy, an institution as assiduously guarded as the US's West Point or Great Britain's Sandhurst. Pakistani Intelligence officers knew about bin Laden's home, but they got kickbacks to keep it secret!

Hey! I wish to deliver the keynote speech at your conference. My speeches leave the audience thinking something new or resolved to act, stir the emotions as well as appealing to reason, and show a sense of occasion. I get away with elevated language because my liberty cause is a noble one. I practice a colorful rhetoric enriched with alliterations, metaphors, heightened imagery, emotional effect, and sound bites. Basil Venitis, venitis@gmail.com