“You have put me on the spot.”
I have to laugh at the thought of John Negroponte, the US Deputy Secretary of State, standing in front of a bunch of angry Pakistanis getting grilled. Nobody back home has the guts to do that to him, of course, which makes it all the more entertaining when his happens abroad. Pakistan is so important to US interests that he has to just stand there and take it, trying to make nice with the newly elected parliament.
IHT: A chill ushers in new diplomatic order in Pakistan
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/28/asia/28pstan.php
“How is Pakistan different to Honduras?” Saleem asked, a query clearly intended to tweak Negroponte about his time as ambassador to Honduras in the 1980s, when he was in charge of the American effort to train and arm a guerrilla force aimed at overthrowing the leftist government in Nicaragua. He was later criticized for meddling in the region and overlooking human rights abuses in pursuit of United States foreign policy goals.
The diplomat demurred, according to Saleem, saying, “You have put me on the spot.”
Dealing with this new parliament will be a lot trickier than it was to deal with Musharraf, I imagine, if only because we’ll have to talk to them more openly.
Personally I think that Pakistan will bend to what the US wants. If Clinton gets in I think that they will be ignored, she hasn’t shown any real interest in what is happening there - unless I have missed a news feed somewhere.
Obama just wants to nuke them.
I agree that Pakistan will most likely go along with what we want, especially since Musharraf is still the president. I guess what I really meant when I said that “dealing with this new parliament will be a lot trickier” is that, for the US officials involved, it will be a lot less convenient and pleasant than dealing just with Musharraf.
Clinton made some statements during an interview that indicated that she has very little understanding of what’s going on in Pakistan:
http://jimbyrd.wordpress.com/2008/01/01/hillary-clintons-foreign-policy-experience/
Apparently she thought that Bhutto had been planning to run against Musharraf for president.
Obama has said he might blast the pro-Taliban guys hiding out in the mountains in Pakistan, if the Pakistanis won’t do it themselves. I’m not sure if that’s a good idea or not but it certainly wouldn’t trouble me to see those guys get killed.