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| Gripping viewing as Osama bin Laden is "taken out" |
How can we support democratic forces that constantly cause Christians and other minorities grief and misery? That kill opposition leaders? That rig elections? Imran Khan, the cricketer turned politician bemoaned the lack of democratic decency in the country. Perhaps he should have a chat with Cameron?
Last year David Cameron was accusing Pakistan of looking "both ways" on terrorism. Most people murmured in agreement on hearing that. There will be muttering today rather than murmuring. He told the BBC's Today programme, "Of course there will be lots of questions about what sort of support system did Bin Laden have in Pakistan - and we need those questions answered - but as we stand today we simply don't know the answers.
"If we turn away from them and give up on them and say 'this is all too difficult and complicated because we don't always get what we want', you are left with a nuclear power in danger of massive extremism and massive instability."
So what are we to do? Go into Pakistan and run the show for them? That is not possible. However, 60 odd years of running things their way has not achieved much for most Pakistanis. It can't be a toss-up between a nuclear bomb and a group of nutters on one side and a nuclear bomb and a group of heavy-handed autocrats on the other. I doubt if we will ever get answers to the sort of support system Bin Laden had in Pakistan. That he got his groceries delivered is blindingly obvious. He had satellite TV, so he was watching something to keep his mind occupied. I mean, right next door to the military academy! "Keep it under your hats, fellas, but bin Laden's moved in next door!"
And Cameron's still linking the Taliban with al-Qaeda. The two may have links on occasions but are no better than hyenas grappling for morsels. One has to wonder who our enemies really are. It is said that the bin Laden family is made up of almost 800 kinsfolk. Osama bin Laden's father was a prolific breeder of humanity. Osama was his 17th child out of 54. And other bin Laden men contributed to the number. The Saudi Binladen Group manages all the cash that swirls around. It is a global oil and equity management conglomerate grossing $5 billion U.S. dollars annually, and one of the largest construction firms in the Islamic world, with offices in London and Geneva. According to an American diplomat, the bin Laden family owns part of Microsoft and Boeing among other companies. So what do we really know? Was Osama the only black sheep of this extended family?
Politics can get very murky indeed. According to this and several other websites "The Bush Administration gave the Taliban $43 million in May of 2001 for their destruction of Afghan opium crops in February. Drugs and terrorism go hand in hand. Afghanistan had been the world's largest producer of opium/heroin, claiming close to 70% of the world's total production. The amount of drug cash flowing into Wall Street and U.S. banks was estimated to be around $250-$300 billion a year. The history of the drug trade in Central Asia is intimately related to the CIA's covert operations. The U.S., directly or indirectly, helped to fund the WTC attacks. George Bush, Sr. was in charge of all U.S. intelligence and narcotics operations from 1981 through 1989. It was Bush (the elder) who directly nourished and nurtured bin Laden's evolution."
But aren't the poppy crops still flourishing? Aren't the banks still flushing drug money through the system? Until the right questions are asked the wrong answers will be given to us! David Cameron needs a set of pithily pointed questions that give proper answers. We deserve no less.
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