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Friday, July 23

So what if Kayani gets along with al Qaeda? We get along with Kayani!

United States National Security Council in session


In a move backed by the United States, Pakistan's prime minister extended by three years the term of the army's chief, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, who does double duty as Pakistan's top decision-maker on all defense-related matters.

The U.S. National Security Council wanted Kayani to stay on at his post because they're familiar with him and get along with him. However, Kayani in charge means China, not the USA, gets top priority; this, despite the estimated $1 billion the USA forks over annually to Pakistan's armed forces to fight terrorists on America's behalf. Here, from counterterrorism expert B. Raman, is how the arrangement works out in practice:
...[Kayani] has a good equation with the leadership of the People’s Liberation Army of China and has further strengthened the military-military relationship with the PLA.

The past relations, which were focused on the two armies and air forces, have now been expanded to focus more on the two Navies. The joint counter-terrorism exercises between the two armies have practically become joint counter-Uighur exercises, with China increasingly relying on the Pakistani security forces for putting down the revolt of the Uighurs in the Xinjiang province.

While he has been reluctant to act against Al Qaeda and its associates in North Waziristan, he has not hesitated to act against the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), which poses a threat to China.[...]
The New York Times adds this howler:
The Americans have praised General Kayani for his army’s campaigns against the Pakistani Taliban but, behind the scenes, the Americans have been disappointed with the general’s failure to disown the Afghan Taliban, who benefit from sanctuaries in Pakistan’s tribal areas.
The NSC and U.S. military command are "disappointed?" Disappointment is when the babysitter doesn't show. Disappointment is when your football team loses. When the U.S. taxpayer is helping Pakistan's military deal with its own insurgency, stage joint operations with China's regime, shield al Qaeda, and use Taliban proxies to fight American troops in Afghanistan, this is not cause for disappointment. This is cause for swift and strong remedial action that dispenses with the finger-wagging stage.