In the absence of a serving President following the resignation of Parvez Musharraf, the Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani became the perfect player to grant the US a black cheque to attack its own citizens.

                                                      Yousaf Raza Gilani  - Pakistan Prime Minister

Reports indicate that Gilani is no stranger to the US raid in the North West Frontier province that caused the death of civilians, angering the Pakistani people and Parliament altogether.

Supporting the PM is Pakistan's presidential front-runner Asif Ali Zardari who said in a newspaper column (Washington Post) Thursday he stands with the U.S. against international terrorism. With these events taking place and the most important man in its pocket, the US is on the verge of a major strike in Pakistan.

Washington is succeeding to have both the PM and the President of Pakistan on its side and this is the inevitable route for the Muslim nation as a result of its support for the US in the war on terror.

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi who condemned a direct US intervention within Pakistan itself risk losing his job for continued opposition to the ongoing war against terrorism that is the war conducted by the US with Pakistani and Afghani forces against the Taliban and the group belonging to Osama Bin Laden.

Before the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, World Futures said the latter was the pawn in a deadly game whose rules were laid by Washington. We predicted that she did not have a future in Pakistan’s extremely volatile political scene and that the US had sent her to help oust Musharraf, the fallen ally.

With the killing of Bhutto, the gate is open for the US to impose its Presidential candidate to the Parliament and the recent attack by US forces inside Pakistan, killing women and children and the commando styled execution of several men in the attack came at the right time.

Instead of diffusing anti-US sentiments in Pakistan, the attack has raised the ire of both government Ministers and the opposition. Despite the possible upheaval a US direct intervention may create in the future, Washington is now assured of yet another enemy turned ally. The Pakistani army has been on its toes to prevent the US from having access to the North West Frontier provinces but this may have changed.

In August this year, U.S. and Pakistan military leaders were meeting regularly. In one such meet on board a U.S. aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln in the Indian Ocean, focussed on how to 'better work together to defeat extremists on the border with Afghanistan', it appears a deal was done. The deal may have been the recent US attack in the North West of Pakistan. The meeting of the U.S. and Pakistani army personnel included Micheal Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff and Pakistan's Army chief of staff Ashfaq Pervez Kayani.

Kayani is now seen as one of the players in the deadly Pakistan political game who is eating in the hands of the U.S.

The meeting is now seen as part of the U.S. plans to ovetake relunctant forces in Pakistan and to look beyond protests and refusals by officials to allow U.S. access to Pakistan's territory to conduct search and kill missions.

Minister Qureshi lambasted the US for what he said was the violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty by the US, adding that the attack did not result in the arrest of important terrorists or high-value targets.

Qureshi added that innocent citizens were the target instead, confirming reports that women and children were among those killed by the heavily armed US soldiers who attacked the region.

A lawmaker from the chief opposition party, that of ex-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, on Thursday blasted the U.S. for the attack, reported the AFP and other news agencies.

"The American war against terrorism has become a war against Pakistan, and the killing of people by them at Angoor Ada is a clear example of it," Zafar Ali Shah said.

Pakistan's Senate and National Assembly passed resolutions Thursday condemning the attack.

On paper, it appears that the US is losing the battle to gain access to the highest decision making level in Pakistan with crowds chanting anti-America slogans and the Pakistani Taliban movement vowing revenge against the outright violation of Pakistan’s territory and the Muslim land in the North West Frontier by American – thus kafir forces.

The recent visit of Pakistan’s Prime Minister to the US in which he clearly maintained that his government was committed to fight terrorism and that it would work side by side with the Americans to achieve a set of goals. One of these goals is to eradicate Pakistan of extremist Muslims. This was the essence of Gilani’s speech and promises made to the US during his visit to the White House and to Washington.

                                                    Asif Ali Zardari - Benazir's Husband and PPP leader

With Zardari now claiming that the war on terrorism is a war against Pakistan – he meant a war by terrorists against Pakistan – and that he stands by the US, Spain and Great Britain in this war on terrorism, the US gained an assurance that it was still in the game in Pakistan.

Losing Benazir Bhutto on the front was not a problem for the Americans as they knew sooner or later Musharraf had to go. Washington considered Musharraf to be an obstacle to its desire to send its own troops to deal with the Taliban and Osama’s people in the North West Frontier zones and in Waziristan.

The former President of Pakistan, rendered responsible for the backlash of several military operations in Waziristan and other pro-Taliban areas, was also made the scapegoat for the Army’s blunder in the Lal Masjid massacre.

While Musharraf was holding the country under his iron hands, wiping out pockets of Islamic fundamentalists accused of extremisms, his army was incapable of stopping the Taliban from penetrating into Pakistan. The US had demanded that Musharraf attack the Taliban movement too and to tackle the growing so called extremism among the Muslims in the North West Frontiers. Musharraf refused to engage his soldiers any further against the Taliban for fear of losing more men against the Talibs.

He also warned the US not to engage its troops in the provinces where the Taliban were strong because, he said; where his army has failed the US will not succeed and will be humiliated. It was necessary for Washington to abandon its very first Muslim ally in the bloody war on terrorism and to seek another willing partner.

Bhutto, the victim of US deadly game

Bhutto and Musharraf out of the picture, the Pakistanis seem left with Asif Zardari who is known as Mr 10 percent and who is also said to be a psychiatric patient. He is expected to win the Presidential elections despite strong contention by Muslim parties and that of Nawaz Sharif.

The aim of the US in having a pro-Washington president is to help the Nato forces in Afghanistan squeeze the Taliban forces in between a resurgent Pakistani army and the Nato servicemen.

U.S. commanders have pushed Pakistan to put more pressure on militant groups blamed for mounting violence in Afghanistan.

                                                     Parvez Musharraf former President of Pakistan

While Musharraf was never an opponent to the US war on terror and benefited largely – economically – with huge sums of cash transferred to the Pakistani government during his rule from the US; the army was never in favor of the murky and dirty war on terror.

However, the Military forces of Pakistan did not expect the US to play a deadly political game on its own terrain. The attack on Benazir is blamed on the Intelligence Services of Pakistan, the ISI which has direct relations with the military leadership of the country. In Pakistan it has always been the military that decides the political future of the country but this time around it may be different. The US, as we described earlier, has an upper hand on the presidential favorite whom it will grease with the green back in order to press forward its attempts at isolating the Taliban which has been a real pain in the US ass in Afghanistan in the past 2 years.

The US believes that by putting Zardari in command of Pakistan, the military will lose its prowess and will have to follow the orders of the US Generals who will be establishing base in the North West Frontier regions.

In this game, it is not the life one Pakistani leader that is at stake since it is that of the entire ruling coalition in power in Pakistan with the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) in the lead that is at stake. The Taliban is waiting for the right opportunity to derail the current and long term plans of the US in Pakistan and in Afghanistan. Yet it is certain that it has to expect a massive invasion of its territories from the east of Afghanistan to the West of Pakistan. The end result is not important here as what will happen to the leadership of Pakistan when it become clear that the US is the one that will benefit from its long term investment with billions of US dollars thrown into the lap of the Musharraf regime. This investment is bound to bear its fruits with the election of Zardari as President.

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The usual Blame Game
written by Abdul gaffar, September 08, 2008

To the five pillars of Islam a sixth one is added in recent times.

'Death to America’ is a de facto sixth pillar of Islam that Muslims have been chanting. Today’s Muslims, including those who live in America, must endeavor to destroy America.

America is seen the only cause of all the ills that beset the Islamic world. India and Israel sometimes share this honor.

It is an acknowledged truism in Pakistan that we survive on three ‘A’s. Army, Allah and America. America has given Pakistan billions of dollars in aids. Pakistan as a country would have been finished long ago if it was not for American help. And the Pakistanis instead of looking into their own souls perversely keep blaming America.

Any person so willfully neglectful of such a recent piece of history does not deserve to call himself a journalist.

Blaming America for the ills of Pakistan is like a prostitute who cries rape after taking the client’s money and sleeping with him.

Khuda Hafiz.

Mad Abdul
written by Kazi Mahmood, September 08, 2008

Most welcomed Mad Abdul. Yet your views are not necessarily the only whole truth! Digest that fact and then call yourself whatever name you want. My pleasure!

America is to be blamed for being a stupid country. You say it yourself when you mention money.

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