Such is the depth of Pakistan’s moral corruption, that Syed Saleem Shahzad’s death leaves al Qaeda and the Taliban on a higher moral ground than Pakistan’s infamous intelligence agency, the ISI.
They were both responsible for thousands of civilian deaths in causes they believed were righteous. They both occupied top spots on the World’s Most Wanted list. They were both the subject of raids that were years in the making and required extensive intelligence work. But in all other respects — and particularly in the messages they sent to the international community — the operations against Ratko Mladic and Osama bin Laden couldn’t have been more different.
Like Pakistan, the United States may be in danger of the wrong person getting his — or her — hands on the nuclear “button.”
Some feel that if the United States continues to provide financial aid to Islamabad, it will be recognized as acceptance of flourishing Islamist extremism in Pakistan.
The New York Times backs the administration and Gen. Petraeus’s policy of softening up the Taliban with a pounding before talking with its representatives.
Pakistan seems oblivious to the threat that expanding its nuclear-weapons program poses.
It was a primitive form of surgery. Almost ten years ago, the United States and its allies stuck a knife deep into Afghanistan in an attempt to remove two malignancies, al-Qaeda and the Taliban. One of those, Osama bin Laden’s crew, is nearly gone. The Taliban, after going into remission for a brief period, has come back.
The knife remains in the patient. With bin Laden gone, the debate has intensified: what to do with the knife?
Political freedom, accountability, corruption, and economic justice are at the center of democratic protests. Turkey’s record on these issues has drawn the notice of many in the Islamic world. But Turkey’s experience with electoral politics and market economics is unique, a response to the specifics of Turkish history and culture. The example therefore may not be replicable.
With his severity and grandiosity, bin Laden had outlived his tactical, strategic, and philosophic usefulness to jihadists.
How we define Osama bin Laden’s death matters.