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Originally Posted by jcmd62
The only point you've made extremely clear is that when you feel the need to lay blame it will be with the current US President and his Admin, regardless of their political affiliation or whether they have actually done anything wrong.
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You can has walkthrough...
Let's do a step by step walk through of events in Pakistan over the past 6 years.
The Bush admin desperately needed Pakistan's permission to use their airspace in late 2001 for bombing missions in Afghanistan.
To secure that, they ( the Bush admin; not the US ) forgave Pakistan’s debts, removed its embargo-"bad guy" status (for developing atomic weapons in secret), provided large amounts of military assistance, and gave even larger amounts of cash to Musharraf.
Why this was a mistake:
While the Bush admin was concentrating on bribing Musharraf, they took their eyes off of Dr. A. Q. Khan who without impediment immediately expanded his personal bank accounts by selling North Korea the technology necessary to create huge ass radioactive mushroom clouds.
Side note: Dr. Khan the bomb offered to sell that technology to Saddam, but Saddam wasn't interested and wouldn't even meet with him.
The Bush admin thought otherwise though and ....well, you know that story.
Fast forward a couple of years: Bin Laden and other top America haters are hiding in plain sight in Pakistan and pretty much making fools out of the Bush admin.
2004 election fast approaching and NO signs of "progress".
Intense pressure started being applied on Musharraf to allow American special forces to conduct operations inside of Pakistan.
There must be progress or the illusion thereof or the 2004 election would be lost.
The deal reached was one where Musharraf 's military put on showy operations in the areas where the American voters would be sure to see the "signs of progress" on their TV screens before the election.
The "secret" deal allowed US special forces to conduct operations in Pakistan simultaneously where they immediately blasted a religious school to hell killing 80 children and blamed Musharraf 's military for the crime.
After that mess Musharraf was no longer on the Bush admin's friends list.
Overnight, the State Department changed him from valiant ally to enemy of democracy, and the American press obliged with the appropriate stories and emphasis; spoon feeding the propaganda to people like you who were too damned lazy in youth to learn how to objectively form opinions of your own without having them conveniently given to you.
So, suddenly Musharraf became an undemocratic pariah who needed to be replaced.
It was easy enough to exploit public dissatisfaction with a military dictator, even if he was only trying to do his best for his country within some terrible limits.
Enter Bhutto.
The Bush admin gave Ms. Bhutto a blessing and a gentle push, and likely a bundle of cash, along with undoubtedly, the promise of lots of future support, to return home as opposition to Musharraf.
Ms. Bhutto was regarded in Washington as more amenable to American demands in Pakistan. (Obviously she was also viewed that way in Pakistan )
She had the double merit of being able to give Pakistan’s government the gloss of democracy while serving key American interests.
But it couldn’t be clearer that democracy is not what the Bush admin was really concerned with, because Musharraf was just a fine ally so long as he did as he was told.
The quick fix is what the Bush admin demanded; a quick fix to its own perceptions of problems under the guise of supporting democracy and opposition to terror, will achieve absolutely nothing over the long term.
And that is why the whole of the Bush admin's policies concerning Pakistan have been and are mistakes.
One could fairly say that Bhutto's assassination just proves how little Washington policymakers understand the region. They sent her to her death, desperately hoping against hope to get what they wanted; "progress" or a reasonable illusion of it.
Meanwhile the taleban sits waiting, in Pakistan, biding their time for when the US led UN forces are forced to leave Afghanistan and they can return to make things as they were before.
It's been worse than a mistake; it's been a disaster.