OUR FRIENDS IN PAKISTAN

"for more than 20 years, the pakistani government has used islamic radicals as an instrument of both domestic and foreign policy."

"now, many pakistani security experts doubt that the goverment has the will or the means to neutralize hat has become a huge network of violence..."

"according to pakistani experts on islamic militancy nd national security, there are as many as 500,000 members of jihadi--the muslim holy war organizations--in pakistan."

the above is from the new york times on may 27. the very next day the times' lead story was entitled "taliban and qaeda believed plotting within pakistan."

the article related that according to the american commander in afghanistan, "virtually the entire senior leadership of al qaeda and the taliban...are now operating with as many as 1000 non-afghan fighters in the anarchic tribal areas of western pakistan." among that senior leadership, still alive and plotting, is osama bin laden, who was reportedly seen in the area as recently as a month ago.

the may 27 article quoted an expert as saying that pakistani president pervez murharraf is aleady viewed as the enemy of these half million islamic footsoldiers because of his support of america in the afghan war.

these are our friends in pakistan. this is the people whose support president bush has made the centerpiece of his coalition in the war on terrorism. these are the facts that the bush administration ignores. this i why the bush war plan is incompetent, blind and will lead to the deaths of many, many more americans.

the above are just two of the countless reports in the last 8 months evidencing the support within the islamic world for jihad on the united states.

other reports have shown that the hatred of and obsession with destroying the united states is the product of the accepted teachings of the koran that every child in the islamic world is made to absorb.

item: public opinion polls showed plurality support within pakistan for bin laden.

item: since sept 11 the most popular name given to boys born in egypt is osama.

item: the notorious "protocols of the elders of zion," a vicious, long-discredited anti-semitic book is displayed as if it were the latest tom clancy novel in airport lounges and hotels in saudi arabia.

etc., etc., etc.

it is willful blindness to see this as other than a war by islam on america. the bush aministration is confused and paralyzed by the unfamiliarity of the islamic war strategy.

it's foreign policy "dream team" of cheney, rumsfeld and powell is an ossified reactionary triumvarite that has spent 8 months fighting the last war, in this case the gulf war, with useless coalition building and the ineffective use of military force.

ineffective? osama bin laden is alive, al qaeda has simply changed addresses from afghanistan to pakistan, the vice president and fbi dirctor acknowledge that new attacks are inevitable. ineffective.

it is this mindless strategy, this coalition-building hokum, this alliance with pakistan that is the very thing that prevents us from going into the are where we know bin laden is and killing him and routing al qaeda.

"oh well, " sigh american military officials at their bad luck that pakistan and india are on the brink of war and pakistani troops have been diverted from the pursuit of bin laden and al qaeda to the kashmiri border.

the bush administratio has left it to the pakistanis to safeguard our national interest. the pakistanis. the result of this madness will be more murderous assaults on our own people.

-benjamin harris