No Good Deed Goes Unpunished in Pakistan

Pakistani spooks have arrested several of their own citizens this week for cooperating with the CIA in the events which lead up to the U.S. Navy SEALs raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad last May, according to U.S. officials and Fox News.

Five CIA informants, including the owner of a CIA safe-house, and a Pakistani major who copied license plates of cars visiting the compound before the raid, were detained by Pakistan’s top military spy agency, known as Inter-Services Intelligence, (ISI).

The fate of the informants is so far unclear, and U.S.-Pakistani relations are still strained to the max because of the secret U.S. military raid on sovereign Pakistani territory. U.S. officials say these arrests are just the latest evidence of an ongoing fractious relationship between the two countries.

On a rating scale of between 1 and 10, right now Pakistan's cooperation with the United States on counter terrorism operations is a "Three," according to Michael Morell, a deputy CIA director, although another CIA spokeswoman, tried to sugar coat the relationship, saying that “we will continue to work together,” calling it a “crucial partnership in the fight against Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups who threaten our country and theirs."

For what it’s worth, that, and about $3.50, will buy you a small cup of coffee at Starbucks. This is the thanks we get for ridding them and the world of the most evil terrorist bastard in the recent history of civilization.

Had the Pakistani government been told about the raid beforehand, there is little doubt in my mind that Osama bin Laden would still be plotting new adventures with impunity in his brand new Abbottabad terror compound, right down the street from the old one, under the loving protection of the Pakistani military.

The United States gives Pakistan billions of dollars in foreign aid every year. We support them diplomatically in their constant feuds with neighboring India. We bend over backwards to keep them all fat and happy, and then they turn around and stab us in the back every chance they get. It’s truly a wonder that we manage any assistance at all from Pakistani citizens when they have to fear the wrath of their own government in the process.

It’s the same situation in Afghanistan, Iraq, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and every other miserable hellhole in the Middle East, except Israel. They get our lives, blood and cash. We get sneered at and slapped in the face. They hate us! They hate our guts and no amount of aid, assistance and goodwill is ever going to change that, at least not in my lifetime.

Why the United States of America has ever become involved with them militarily is well beyond my humble comprehension. It can’t be about oil. They’ll sell their oil on the world market just like always, where we can buy it just like anyone else. Oil and opium is all they have to sell anyway, and they are not about to abandon their biggest customer.

The war in Iraq was a huge mistake – nearly as bad as Vietnam. The war in Afghanistan was likewise totally unnecessary.

The average American had no beef with Saddam Hussein, and surely none with the Taliban either. Sure, it’s nice that Saddam is gone, but for $3½ trillion dollars, together with over 4000 dead soldiers, it just doesn’t make the slightest bit of sense. He was a nasty dictator to his people but at least the country was stable. Now it’s a powder keg ready to blow, and there is no hope for the better anytime soon. 

As for Osama bin Laden, we didn’t need to spend thousands of lives to get him. The CIA and 40 Navy SEALs did the trick just fine. We certainly don’t need to crush the Taliban. The average Afghan male loves Uncle Taliban. They’ll be back in power again within days of our leaving Afghanistan – that is if we ever do leave, which is highly doubtful. And when that happens, the U.S. will have lost the war and we’ll only continue in our grotesque role as the laughing stock of the Middle East and the world.

When it comes to America and our “allies” in the Middle East, it appears that no good deeds go unpunished.