The elimination of Osama bin Laden in a meticulously planned operation on late Sunday night, May 1, in a Pakistani garrison town of Abbotabad, by special forces, is a feather in the cap of the US armed forces and their suspreme commander US President Barack Obama. Its timing may have a political dimension for the US President whose popularity rating was going down, endangering his prospects for a 2nd term. The dramatic success of the US "Navy Seals" commandoes in killing the ruthless preacher of the perverse of ideology of hate-Osama bin Laden-is bound to boost Obama's electoral chances manifold.
The attack on the Osama hideout also exposes, once again, the duplicity of the Pakistani intelligence agency ISI, and the Army. Is it possible that their most valued guest was living in a hugely walled, secure accommodation in their army town with his big family and other protectors, and the ISI and the army chief Gen. Kayani did not know about it? Thus, the Pakistanis were supposed to be the US' trusted and strategic allies in war against terrorism, but they always played fast and loose:Once in a while, they would arrest some minor al-Qaeda players and hand them over to the US authorities against huge sums of military and econom ic aid. But insincerity and double-facedness was writ large on Pakistan's policy on terrorism. For their own compulsions, they seemed to shelter Osama. India remains their main target. The question is that having achieved their decade-old mission of physically liquidating the architect of 9/11 massacre, will the US pack their bags and go home from Afghanistan for the radical Islamic elements like the Taliban and the Lashkare Toiba to mobilise their suicide squads to avenge the killing of Osama? Will the US finally recognise the real face of Pakistan and its being the foremost exporter of terrorism in the world? A question is also being asked whether India as a foremost victim of Pakistani terrorism will do to POK-the centre of terrorist training camps aimed at India, what the US did to eliminate Osama-a terrible source of threat to its national security? Frankly speaking, it is an unreal question. We are known to be a soft state with weak and confused leadership. Our Prime Minister is strangely obsessed with peace talks with Pakistan regardless of the pain and hurt the latter causes us. In 64 years of our independence, we have never done this to safeguard our national interests. In 1971 Bangladesh war, we were literally forced into it. Even then, we did not press the advantage of our victory and 90,000 Pak POWs in our hands. We again trusted ZA Bhutto and let the Pakistani POWs go. We were back to square one, as usual!
The attack on the Osama hideout also exposes, once again, the duplicity of the Pakistani intelligence agency ISI, and the Army. Is it possible that their most valued guest was living in a hugely walled, secure accommodation in their army town with his big family and other protectors, and the ISI and the army chief Gen. Kayani did not know about it? Thus, the Pakistanis were supposed to be the US' trusted and strategic allies in war against terrorism, but they always played fast and loose:Once in a while, they would arrest some minor al-Qaeda players and hand them over to the US authorities against huge sums of military and econom ic aid. But insincerity and double-facedness was writ large on Pakistan's policy on terrorism. For their own compulsions, they seemed to shelter Osama. India remains their main target. The question is that having achieved their decade-old mission of physically liquidating the architect of 9/11 massacre, will the US pack their bags and go home from Afghanistan for the radical Islamic elements like the Taliban and the Lashkare Toiba to mobilise their suicide squads to avenge the killing of Osama? Will the US finally recognise the real face of Pakistan and its being the foremost exporter of terrorism in the world? A question is also being asked whether India as a foremost victim of Pakistani terrorism will do to POK-the centre of terrorist training camps aimed at India, what the US did to eliminate Osama-a terrible source of threat to its national security? Frankly speaking, it is an unreal question. We are known to be a soft state with weak and confused leadership. Our Prime Minister is strangely obsessed with peace talks with Pakistan regardless of the pain and hurt the latter causes us. In 64 years of our independence, we have never done this to safeguard our national interests. In 1971 Bangladesh war, we were literally forced into it. Even then, we did not press the advantage of our victory and 90,000 Pak POWs in our hands. We again trusted ZA Bhutto and let the Pakistani POWs go. We were back to square one, as usual!
Very well expressed -- certainly a daring and dramatic operation that is a feather in the cap for Obama and the US.
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