-As we wake up this week to the fact that enemy number one, Osama Bin Liner, was living in the relative lap of luxury (see the Bloomberg story yesterday) in Abbotabad (should probably be called Headinthesandabad or Stabinthebackabad), a Pakistani Army garrison town which is home to the West Point of Pakistan (though, given their army's performance that is a huge insult to West Point and our cadets). Osama was drinking Coke and Pepsi (though we don't know which he preferred), shopped for by a few guys who often showed up to the local grocery mart in a minivan, taking quantities for some 10 people. Shopping for 10 would not be out of the question in Pakistan - any more than it would be here in the US - save for the fact that the goods being purchased were largely the international products which command a hefty premium. In a country in which the average per capita income is $1027, this should have raised at least a few "red flags".
-The fact that Osama was also living in the largest "villa" in the area (a 1.5 acre estate with high walls and security fences) right under the nose of a Pakistani authority which claimed no knowledge of his whereabouts is ridiculous (the villa was seemingly purpose built in 2005, implying that Osama, having escaped a cave in the Tora Bora mountains, has been sunning himself for some 6 years). That, or it points to the complete incompetence of a national institution which is so unconcerned with its own security that it would allow the mastermind of terrorist activities to live within spitting distance of its major military training ground. Then again, many have argued that Osama, in his ability to maintain hidden, has benefitted from illicit aid of both the ISS (The Pakistani version of the CIA) and the Pakistani military.
-Now that we have executed this blight (an interesting outcome as he was not the head of a nation and thus exempt from the Nixon era operative that disavowed our ability to assassinate state heads), the question clearly becomes what do we do with the Pakistanis. Not all Pakistanis can be painted with the same brush, though it is easy to question their true commitment to the "war on terror" and their role to us as an ally. Do we ostracize them, cut off aid and add them to the "axis of evil"? Do we make unrealistic demands of a government and regime which has had a spotty record of democracy? Do the Pakistanis care what we demand or do? As with the children's "Magic 8 ball", the answer would seem to be: "All Signs Appear to Be No".
-That said, they, as a sovereign nation, do have to deal with significant internal issues which require a deft touch in maintaining stability. They have a significant radical Muslim population which disagrees with any alignment with the "Great Satan" and quite frankly is of the ilk of returning the national social policy back to the stone age, denying women the right to education among other more draconian social and criminal philosophies. They have regions, bordering Afghanistan (Waziristan, for example) which are as lawless as the Wild West of the mid-to-late 18th century and largely off limits to any federal administration (they are in all fact called autonomous zones). To antagonize any of these radical elements too much could result in a dissolution of a democratic regime (however loose the use of democratic may be in the Pakistani case) into some sort of chaotic or evil empire which could threaten that corner of the world, not to mention the whole of the world, with the exportation or use of its nuclear weapons.
-Osama is D-E-A-D, either that or living in one of the many foreclosed condos in some small hamlet outside Las Vegas in the witness protection program, having actually been captured and convinced to roll on all his other plastic explosive wearing colleagues (if you are true "Smoking Gun" conspiratist, you would add his killing to the fact that we never landed men on the moon; that Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix are alive and living on some commune in Goa or northern Australia; and that the Beatles were, in fact, Satan worshippers and when playing their records backward they were trying to send dark messages). Whatever the case, as simplified as this analysis is, the application of Sun-Tzu's "Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer" is certainly the right path for US-Pakistani relations going forward.
-Not all Pakistanis are evil America-haters, and our ability to exercise some influence among the enlightened members of that society should be considered at every turn. That is not to say that we should bend at all when complained to about guided drone missile forays within their national borders. Nor should we cease our decision to operate covertly or overtly when necessary to achieve a national or global goal in eliminating the "world's most wanted" (Message to one Egyptian Doctor: your time is coming, my friend. Be ready for a group of well trained, well conditioned gentlemen in camo to pay you a "house call"). We should embrace Pakistan with all the sincerity of Shirley MacLain in "Steel Magnolias": full of syrupy charm and drawl, masterfully masking a string of venom.
-We don't need to be nice. We just need to be smart.
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