Pundita's Vacation Diary

OLD PUNDITA PROVERB: HE WHO PLACATE TIGER BY FEEDING IT HIS FINGER SOON MISSING HIS HEAD
July 31: China officially offers squadron of J-10 fighter jets to Pakistan

August 1: China announces Pakistan-trained militants behind terrorist attack in China

Meanwhile, General Pasha, the globe-trotting head of Pakistan's ISI, is off to Beijing in the attempt to make a widely-advertised secret deal with China's leaders.

BEST EVER TITLE FOR A BLOG POST
Nathan Hodge's May 2009 Mullen Pinky-Swears: We Don’t Bankroll Pakistan’s Nukes

FUNNIEST FOLLOW-UP TO HODGE'S POST
Mullen's comments reported on July 26, 2011 about U.S.-Pakistan military relationship. From Mullen's last presser before retiring as JCS chairman.

BIGGEST FREUDIAN SLIP THIS YEAR BY A NEWS ORGANIZATIONFrom July 26 AFP report headlined US military chief nominee says to press Pakistan:

General Martin Dempsey, answering questions from senators at his confirmation hearing [to replace Mullen as JSC chairman], said that he would urge Pakistan not to eliminate the safe haven enjoyed by militants in its lawless areas bordering Afghanistan.

STRONGEST TEETH IN THE NEWS WORLD
The Gray Lady chewed through her muzzle in record time then banged out a July 24 report titled Pakistan Spies on Its Diaspora, Spreading Fear.

SLOWEST INQUIRY IN WASHINGTON
The U.S. Senate-led Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan took three years ('We kept running out of yellow legal-size tablets and No. 10 pencils') to determine that the American contractors and U.S. Department of Defense have been subsidizing the Taliban.

SECOND SLOWEST
An as-yet unreleased Pentagon-led investigation took a year ('We kept having trouble with the PowerPoint slide projector'). From Washington Post report U.S. trucking funds reach Taliban:

The unreleased investigation provides seemingly definitive evidence that corruption puts U.S. transportation money into enemy hands, a finding consistent with previous inquiries carried out by Congress, other federal agencies and the military. Yet U.S. and Afghan efforts to address the problem have been slow and ineffective, and all eight of the trucking firms involved in the work remain on U.S. payroll. In March, the Pentagon extended the contract for six months.

UH OH. HILLARY CLINTON CHASING GRAY LADY AROUND MANHATTAN WITH A NET AND TASER
July 28: Times Editorial Board falls in line with State Department's message on Pakistan which can be summed as 'Yes of course they're wicked but we have no other option but to put up with them.'

WHO SEZ US GOV CAN'T HANDLE PAKISTAN'S MILITARY?
From July 30 ABC News report CIA Chief in Pakistan Exits; Led OBL Hunt Team

"Pakistan has been harassing U.S. personnel working in the country for months," complained a U.S. official. Pakistan even threatened to impose more formal restrictions on the travel of all U.S. diplomats and require prior notification, but dropped the demand when the U.S. threatened similar restrictions for its diplomats inside the United States, according to one U.S. official.

So for all you 12 year-olds out there, the U.S. government has always had plenty of options that don't require an armed invasion to settle Pakistani military's hash.

As to why the options are rarely deployed, go ask the head of NATO or MI6 oh but that's right I forgot they won't tell you. So go ask Hamid Karzai, but you'd need to get him while he's so furious at NATO he doesn't care that blurting out the truth could shorten his life span. Come to think of it, this might be a good time to ask him.

NEWS THAT'S ALMOST FIT TO PRINT FROM WHITEHALL
July 31: Afghan civilians pay lethal price for new policy on air strikes.

The UN statistics might be inflated but that wouldn't overturn the major news in the report, which was probably leaked by a bunch of renegades in Britain's MoD who have something called 'a conscience.' I'll bet it's the same bunch that leaked the news in 2006 that Pakistan's ISI was behind the Taliban attacks on NATO troops. Tony Blair forced them to backpedal in their public statements but they got out the word.