11-06-2007, 06:01 AM
Unfortunately this isn't much of a shock.
As an independent event, I'd cut the Bush administration more slack - after all, all world political events require either silence or condemnation, and often times the condemning is more of a formality in the world arena than anything meaningful.
In this case though, it's yet another case of the unbalanced relationship the US has with both Afghanistan and Pakistan. On one hand, every interaction can be boiled down to the question 'what do we get out of it?'. But on the other hand, the Bush administration has done a fine job of making it abundantly transparent 'our interests are trump'. And in the case of the -stans, when we don't have a specific interest, their needs often fall on deaf ears.
Scratch our back, and maybe we'll consider scratching yours whenever it suits us.
Cheers,
Munk
As an independent event, I'd cut the Bush administration more slack - after all, all world political events require either silence or condemnation, and often times the condemning is more of a formality in the world arena than anything meaningful.
In this case though, it's yet another case of the unbalanced relationship the US has with both Afghanistan and Pakistan. On one hand, every interaction can be boiled down to the question 'what do we get out of it?'. But on the other hand, the Bush administration has done a fine job of making it abundantly transparent 'our interests are trump'. And in the case of the -stans, when we don't have a specific interest, their needs often fall on deaf ears.
Scratch our back, and maybe we'll consider scratching yours whenever it suits us.
Cheers,
Munk