I'm told this story is in every newspaper and on television in Afghanistan. Most Afghans believe it to be true. Basically, in spite of the Administration's posturing, Pakistan would become the governing power in Afghanistan…..The Administration's statements show a clear lack of understanding about this region….
Pakistan Tells Afghanistan: Expel the Americans
ByAhmad K. Majidyar | National Review Online
Thursday, April 28, 2011
The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that Pakistan's leaders “bluntly” told Afghanistan's president “to forget about allowing a long-term U.S. military presence in his country,” and urged him instead “to look to Pakistan–and its Chinese ally–for help in striking a peace deal with the Taliban and rebuilding the economy.” According to Afghan officials, at an April 16 meeting in Kabul in which the leaders of Pakistan's military and intelligence also participated, Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told Pres. Hamid Karzai that “the Americans had failed them both,” and that it was time for Kabul to choose “alternative allies.” The Pakistani delegation also outlined a number of demands to the Afghan leader. Afghanpaper.com, quoting an unnamed Afghan official, lists Pakistan's demands as:
Phi Beta Iota: The Pakistanis have demonstrated a finely-developed ability to play and bamboozle US officials and especially CIA officials. Well-intentioned officials, no doubt, but absolutely clueless about the levels of deception and double-dealing characteristic of sophisticated cultures. From Brzezinki's giving Pakistan the nuclear bomb to CIA giving Pakistan billions (most of which stayed in Pakistan and probably funded their nuclear and submarine programs), the US has been played as a witless fool for decades. Iran–Pakistan's mortal enemy when they are not focusing on Saudi Arabia–and Saudi Arabia–have also played the US with a perfection made possible only by a lack of integrity and intelligence so profound as to inspire ballads and epic poems.
