I think this post has it exactly right: Cheney is controlling Pakistan policy, and sees his relationship Musharraf as a key means to support his objectives. His grasp of actual statesmanship is limited to non-existent: in Cheney’s mind, micromanaging the torture of a Afghan taxi driver makes him a player, a Machiavellian tough guy. He has no understanding of Arabs or Asian muslims, and a Yale drop-out’s contempt for those who do.

Cheney’s nemesis in the early days of the war was George Tenet, and the CIA’s effectiveness in Afghanistan in 2001 was a threat to Cheney/Rumsfeld’s control of military action. Tenet, not Al Queada, was the threat – and Cheney dealt with him.

I wish I understood more about the Iran-Pakistan relationship. The Iranians reportedly turned to Russia, possibly with an assist from the CIA’s ‘Merlin’ program, for their atom-bomb plans. The Bush regime has long recruited Pakistan as an ally against Iran.

From the Asia Times 3/07:

Iran rightly estimates that Musharraf’s grandiloquent “Islamic action plan” for the Middle East crisis in essence sub-serves the US agenda of ameliorating Israel’s regional isolation without substantially addressing the Palestinian problem… Tehran probably has fresh grounds to reassess Musharraf’s intentions. Or, it is running out of patience. Last month, terrorists killed 13 officials of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in Zahedan. Last week, in another incident in the town of Negor in Sistan-Balochistan, four Iranian policemen were killed, one abducted and another wounded. The perpetrators fled across the border into Pakistan…

The depth of the Iranian sense of hurt and bitterness came out in
remarks made by Ahmad Khatami, who led last Friday’s prayer meeting in Tehran. With biting sarcasm, the religious leader said, “Pakistan is becoming a terrorist state and even though it is our neighbor, little by little it is losing its neighborly manners as it has become a sanctuary for terrorists who kill people in Zahedan.”

One doesn’t need to invoke Sibel Edmonds’ garbled account of an Israel-Turkish-Pakistani nuclear conspiracy to see the hallmark of Bush/Cheney administration’s yen for conspiracy and violence, and contempt for competence.

McCain is behind, so watch out, the dirt will start to fly…

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07…..ref=slogin

Chairman of Joint Chiefs says more troops needed in Afghanistian:

Mullen also addressed the issue of a potential conflict with Iran, saying he clearly favors diplomacy over military action to deter Tehran from seeking nuclear weapons. Mullen visited Israeli officials last week but declined to provide details on his discussions with them.

“Clearly there is a very broad concern about the overall stability level in the Middle East,” Mullen said. For the military, “opening up a third front right now would be extremely stressful on us. That doesn’t mean we don’t have the capacity or the reserve, but that would be very challenging and the consequences of that are very difficult to predict.”

Mullen said plainly that he opposes the U.S. or Israel engaging Iran with a military strike.

“My strong preference is to handle all of this diplomatically with the other powers of government, as opposed to any kind of strike occurring,” Mullen said. “This is a very unstable part of the world and I don’t need it to be more unstable.”

And Iran Appears to Warm to Diplomacy:

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Tuesday that prospects for a military attack by either the United States or Israel on the Islamic republic before the end of the Bush administration are “almost nil,” and he dismissed a recent Israeli military exercise and warnings from Washington as “psychological warfare.”

On the subject of Iraq, Mottaki said Iran believes the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will not accept the controversial status-of-forces agreement sought by Washington. “It is our understanding that Iraq will not sign it,” he said.

He doesn’t sound wrong, given the tepid appraisal of talks in this article.

Or, more importantly, the staffers don’t get recess.

And boy, Condi must be sick of getting Henry’s love letters.

For which there is only one appropriate response, as Harry Potter fans know: Ridiculous!

Bob in HI