Via Blogdex, we find U.S. Deploys Slide Show to Press Case Against Iran, which may leave you wondering if we’ve been sleepwalking toward disaster for the past four years:
The presentation, conducted in a conference room at the U.S. mission in Vienna, includes a pictorial comparison of Iranian facilities and missiles with photos of similar-looking items in North Korea and Pakistan, according to a copy of the slides handed out to diplomats. Pakistan largely supplied Iran with its nuclear infrastructure but, as a key U.S. ally, it is identified in the presentation only as “another country.”
Just another country … whose ISI enjoyed a symbiotic relationship with the Taliban, if it did not actually create the Taliban; where Islamists rule two out of four provinces, including North-West Frontier, where in all likelihood both Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar have obtained refuge; and which has transferred nuclear technology to a sworn enemy of the United States. Just another country …
Pakistan also happens to be a close ally of China:
Pakistan, China agree to strengthen military ties
Putting pressure on Pakistan would put them into the Chinese camp for good, and Pakistan’s nukes would effectively neutralize India’s contribution to the containment of China, IMHO.
So treating them as ‘just another country’ might be the least bad alternative,
That China will try to block any decisive action against Iran is another matter, and so is the advantage Iran gains from the high oil prices.
One of the many things that is disappointing about this administration is the lack of candor about Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. These two countries are the among the worst supporters of Islamic terrorism. I understand the idea that it is too our tactical advantage to try to work with the existing regimes there, and that any likely successor regime is likely to be worse. Something more like this truth should be spoken to the American public, instead of the diplomatic lies about these rotten-to-the-core countries being our “allies”. Bush is usually described as a plain-spoken man, but on this topic, and the related issue of Islam as a “religion of peace” he and his administration have lied by omission all along. Yet another opportunity that the bone-headed Kerry failed to exploit, so the issue was never dragged into the sunlight. What a waste.
What the Bush administration is actually doing — trying to force reform in Pakistan and SA without resorting to war — makes sense. But the Administration’s attempts to explain why it is doing what it is doing are chronically and woefully inadequate. I think the Administration’s failure in this regard is a matter of ineptitude rather than dishonesty, but the results are the same either way.