Updates from Pak-Ghanistan, as Obama's Efforts There Founder

Meanwhile, while Libya implodes/explodes, things ain't looking so hot in Pak-ghanistan.

From the Pakistani newspaper Dawn:

Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir on Saturday said that efforts made by the international community to establish peace in Afghanistan were failing, DawnNews reported.

He said a clear solution to the Afghan problem was no longer visible.

Also from Dawn:

Taliban insurgents abducted around 50 off-duty Afghan policemen in an ambush in a volatile province in northeastern Afghanistan, the militant group and provincial officials said on Sunday. . .

The policemen were abducted by militants in the Chapa Dara district of remote northeastern Kunar province after returning from neighbouring Nuristan province where they had travelled to collect their salaries, Nuristan governor Jamaluddin Badr said.

“The policemen were in civilian clothes and had no weapons with them,” Badr told Reuters from Nuristan.

Then, from a different Pakistani paper, The Nation:

Pakistan is beefing up its arsenal of long-range missiles by embracing China as its new strategic arms partner and backing away from the US, analysts have told Fox News.

Also from The Nation:

- The United States is considering various options including typical hardcore solutions based on its carrot and stick policy in repairing strained relations with Pakistan by demanding military operation in North Waziristan Agency without any further delay.
Well-placed diplomatic sources told The Nation on Sunday that Washington had been weighing various options in response to Islamabad’s March 17 strong protest with the United States over its inhuman drone hit on a peace congregation in North Waziristan Agency.
The US drone attack on a peace congregation, which killed at least 39 innocent people, had drawn a strong and rare condemnation both from civilian and military leadership of Pakistan which led to serious friction in relations between the two countries.

It appears to me as though things are going badly for the U. S. in this region.

This being a modern age, let's do some relativistic thinking. According to President Obama, it's justified for the U. S. to engage in extrajudicial killings of "militant" in Pakistan from the air, even though we are not at war with Pakistan and never have been. If an unknown number of civilians die from American-fired missiles, it's OK, it's war. However, when a rebellion occurs in Libya, and is repelled, and the leader of Libya says that anyone who surrenders will not be harmed, the U. S. is supposed to intervene. And of course, candidate Obama sponsored a resolution in the Senate insisting the "W" Bush gets Congress' approval before any military action in and against Iran, a country with which even Jimmy Carter launched a military operation without Congress' overt consent. But when it comes to Libya, which apparently buried the hatchet with the U. S. 8 years ago, it's the imperial presidency all over again.

It appears at Econblogreview that the U. S. should clean up its own act regarding civilian killings in Pak-ghanistan. The easiest way to do that is by declaring "victory" and leaving.

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