Pakistan: A Future Iraq?

[Pangloss]

It is often said that the definition of insanity is "Doing the same thing over and over again, hoping for a different result."

 

In the early 1980s the US needed a strong ally in the Middle East to help it oppose the threat of a religiously-controlled Iran. Iraq, and its dictator leader Saddam Hussein, provided a ready answer, and money and weapons flowed into that country. The resulting war cost Iraq and Iran dearly in lives, with no clear victory or resolution to anybody's problems.

 

In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the US needed a strong ally in the Middle East to help it oppose the threat of a religiously-controlled Afghanistan. Pakistan, and its dictator leader General Pervez Musharraf, provided a ready answer, and money and weapons flowed into that country. The resulting war toppled the Taliban regime and appeared to at least initially resolve the United States' problem, but it remains to be seen if either (a) the Taliban is truly out of power, or (b) secular government in Afghanistan can succeed. Meanwhile Musharraf maintains an uneasy hold over power in Pakistan.

 

I guess my question is this: Are we insane? Or is there a shred of logic here, behind the madness?

[darkkazier]

The U.S. and its allies use countries while they are helpful, and once that usefulness is gone we will discard them, its only a matter of time. Do i think it will end up like Iraq, i don't think so for the simple fact that if this Iraq crap pans out we'd have a bit more influence in the middle east to keep them under much better control. And remember our goal is to stabalize(or purify depending on who you talk to) the Middle east, so we can use Our new state Iraq to launch all sorts of offensives on whomever they pick as a enemy next. So i guess in a way we are insane, simply because of the plan they are following.

[atinymonkey]

This political religious Jihad is a bit of a closed book to me at the moment, I understand Pakistan is involved and they are teaching some of the militant groups but I don't really know why. I've got a book on the subject, and I'm going to set some time aside to read it. As far as I can see at the moment, Pakistan represents a significant threat to world peace on a much higher level than Iraq.

[john5746]

This political religious Jihad is a bit of a closed book to me at the moment, I understand Pakistan is involved and they are teaching some of the militant groups but I don't really know why. I've got a book on the subject, and I'm going to set some time aside to read it. As far as I can see at the moment, Pakistan represents a significant threat to world peace on a much higher level than Iraq.

 

I know that Pakistan is against India and has nuclear weapons. Hopefully, we won't give them significant weapons as with Iraq, since we were arming Iraq to fight Iran.