Tuesday, May 03, 2011

A Problem like Pakistan - The Death of OBL

BBC News: Reports that present CIA Director and future US Secretary of Defence Leon Panetta has stated that Pakistan was not informed of US plans to capture/kill OBL due to the fear that the Pakistan Government would leak this important information. The major problem faced by the Obama Administration is the simple fact that Pakistan is a nuclear armed power and is under threat from the Taliban of Pakistan. In many respects Afghanistan is not the PRIZE for the US, its keeping Pakistan stable and out of the hands of the Taliban. The suppose Allies, the US and Pakistan have different aims in Afghanistan, the US wants a stable Afghanistan that prevents itself becoming a terrorists safe heaven as it was pre 9/11, Pakistan wants to prevent Afghanistan coming under the influence its main enemy India. In Afghanistan you have a weak and corrupt Government, one that can see that the US and UK plan to leave by 2015, they don’t want to be hung from the nearest post once the US has left. Thus in PR terms Kabul places a hostile face when it comes to the relationship with the Western Allies, Kabul from its own perspective might have to do deal with the Afghanistan Taliban post 2015, thus it is keeping its options open. Thus the US Afghanistan/Pakistan policy in complex and enigmatic on any given day, the death of Bin Laden will force President Obama to justify keeping US troops in Afghanistan as keeping to the NATO plan, thus those polls hikes might go away fast folks.

No comments: