$(document).ready( function () { talk_rendercallback({"enabled":"0","islive":"0","eid":5521,"total":"3","discussion":[{"nm":"Kamran","rs":"0","ms":"Brilliant point Sue!  That is exactly what we should do!  Just wondering if you would like the blood of innumerable people, including the Indians and Pakistani\'s (whos blood is really worth nothing) on your count.  \n\nImagine, a country which Sue rightly pointed out was invaded, defeated and lost half its state 38 years ago.  The agressor nation, India, then exploded a nuclear bomb in 1974, occupied Pakistani Kashmiri territory in 1984 (Siachin) and has ruthlessly tried to supress a legitimate liberation movement in Kashmir.  July 2008 there were peaceful demostrations in Srinagar asking for independence by hundreds of thousands in a city of a million.  Indian consulates in Jalalbad, Kandahar run operations to try to setup leadership in the Pakistani province of Baluchistan with attacks taking place there almost weekly.  But those crazy Paks just wont move theirtroops from the Indian border like we ask them!\n\nThe war in Afghanistan is lost.  This January there were 38000 US troops in Afghanistan, McCrystal just asked for more that that number as a surge.  As has been pointed out by numerous others, that sort of a request is not to "iron out" problems.  It is an unmitigated disaster.  Soon pictures of helicopters evacuating our allies from Saigon will be replaced by a much more modern heli evacuating our allies from Kabul.  I wonder if it would have been worth it, if we used our influence to convince the Indian\'s to let the people of Kashmir decide their fate?  I guess its a moot point really.\n\nRight now, we should be talking with the Isreali\'s and convincing them to stop worrying about Ahmedijenad and his cult of holocaust deniers and take on the terrorist state of Pakistan which has yet to let out a peep against them.  And ofcourse we should be gearing up our own military for a third war on a muslim country in the space of a decade.  \n\nPlease open up a history book when you get a chance, "Sue."  Or any book which doesnt involve coloring pictures in.","pt":"Oct 15, 2009 01:55"},{"nm":"Sue","rs":"0","ms":"Enough of the hand wringing over Pakistani duplicity! The one thing that the Pakistani army fears more than anything; even more than defeat by the Pakistani Taliban, is the Indian army to whom they have lost every war that they fought. The US should drop the ultimatum (similar to Armitage\'s "bomb you back to stone age" following 9-11) that either the Pakistani army moves against Mullah Omar and the Haqqani Taliban or the US will aid and abet the Indian army to take out this dysfunctional Junker militocracy following the next murderous jihad that they perpetuate in India. I\'m sure that the Israelis will also be eager to avenge the wanton slaying of their citizens in Mumbai. Nothing will motivate the Pakistanis to shape up and join the rest of the civilized world more than the threat of the Indian army spearheading an allied move into their rogue state.","pt":"Oct 14, 2009 04:54"},{"nm":"Andrew Haley","rs":"0","ms":"It is interesting to note that, with the exception of Mr Holbrooke, all of the top sources in the Frontline piece are either military or journalists. If, as Steve Coll points out, the strategic conundrum has more to do with Pakistani politics than war-fighting, why isn\'t the American diplomatic corps providing the leading voices on this? \n\nWhat do military and journalism professionals have in common? Their leadership and their leadership structure isn\'t replaced every four to eight years. \n\nIf America is going to play about with empire it needs an imperial service that, like the military, can build professional experience and experiential intelligence long-term without being reshuffled constantly by domestic politics, but, unlike the military, is better suited to the job than people who are, by definition, specialists in applying violence. \n\nWe shouldn\'t be asking Marines to be diplomats. And we shouldn\'t regard diplomats as being less capable than Marines. ","pt":"Oct 14, 2009 04:08"}]}); });