We have to protect our own interests, not the other country's,” said Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, testifying before the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. She was discussing the inadvertent killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers by NATO helicopters. This latest in a series of such incidents has led this vital American ally to boycott a conference in Bonn Germany addressing Afghanistan, call for the closing of an air base at Shamsi, block movement of supplies and review their terms of cooperation with Washington. She emphasized this time simply apologizing was not enough, and even implied in public that the killings might have been intentional.
Bad news about Afghanistan and Pakistan has been piling up like the proverbial train wreck. Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified before the Senate last fall that the Haqqani Network in Afghanistan, a Taliban ally, infiltrated Pakistan's intelligence service.
Ahmed Wali Karzai, powerful half-brother of Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, was assassinated in July.
In the fall of 2010, a Pentagon spokesman stated elements of Pakistan government intelligence have been actively aiding terrorist groups. During the same period, a U.S. helicopter inadvertently killed Pakistani soldiers, and in retaliation Pakistan halted supply trucks from entering Afghanistan.
A former U.N. official and others have described President Karzai as emotionally unstable, with manic-depressive mood swings. Complicated relations with this touchy leader of a nation in long-term turmoil cannot be helped by publicizing such personal opinions.
There is no doubt that corruption and subversion plague national leadership elements in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. The former is not really a conventional nation-state at all, but rather a collection of literally feudal baronies only loosely affiliated with the capital city of Kabul. Both countries have been flagged by global watchdog Transparency International as particularly plagued with government corruption.
Bad news about Afghanistan and Pakistan has been piling up like the proverbial train wreck. Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified before the Senate last fall that the Haqqani Network in Afghanistan, a Taliban ally, infiltrated Pakistan's intelligence service.
Ahmed Wali Karzai, powerful half-brother of Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, was assassinated in July.
In the fall of 2010, a Pentagon spokesman stated elements of Pakistan government intelligence have been actively aiding terrorist groups. During the same period, a U.S. helicopter inadvertently killed Pakistani soldiers, and in retaliation Pakistan halted supply trucks from entering Afghanistan.
A former U.N. official and others have described President Karzai as emotionally unstable, with manic-depressive mood swings. Complicated relations with this touchy leader of a nation in long-term turmoil cannot be helped by publicizing such personal opinions.
There is no doubt that corruption and subversion plague national leadership elements in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. The former is not really a conventional nation-state at all, but rather a collection of literally feudal baronies only loosely affiliated with the capital city of Kabul. Both countries have been flagged by global watchdog Transparency International as particularly plagued with government corruption.
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