Hypocrisy!

GEODUNIYA, 10th Jan, 09 - Well done the CIA! In an act of astonishing incompetence the Agency has in one fluid motion created millions more enemies for America, fostered a recruiting drive for the anti-American Taliban that will keep it in dedicated manpower for the next couple of decades, driven a friendly government to despair and shattered its attempts to counter the excesses of dangerous religious lunatics, and contributed massively to the already grave instability of a volatile region.

This bizarre shambles was caused by US aerial assaults which killed civilians in Pakistani villages in its North West Frontier Province which lies along the Afghan border. The US military, which is fighting the tribes on the Afghan side of the border, declares it knows nothing of the attacks, and the Pakistan army, which is fighting the tribes on the Pakistan side of the border at the command of Washington (although naturally Pakistan denies this is the reason), knows nothing about them, either, other than the fact they took place.

So we have a chaotic international situation in which buildings within a sovereign country have been smashed to smithereens and their inhabitants blown to pieces by persons unknown to the government of the territory where the strike was made. By any national or international criterion the destruction and killing were illegal. It all sounds a bit like 9/11, in fact - - except that many people who condemned the 9/11 slaughter in the US have supported the slaughter in Pakistan`s tribal area`s.

There is no point in anyone trying to claim there is a moral difference: there were about 3000 killed in New York, and hundreds have already being killed in Pakistani tribal areas of Pakistan mostly civilians. All who died were innocent of any action against their murderers. The difference is that those who planned the atrocity in New York are regarded quite rightly as demented fanatics, and those who planned and executed the killing of villagers in Pakistan are considered to be American heroes by such as Bush, Cheney and McCain and many millions of their zealous adherents.

The responsibility for atrocities in Pakistan has been laid at the door of our favorite wham 'em, bam 'em, slam 'em amateurs, the troglodytes of the Central Intelligence Agency. Gary Trudeau's Doonesbury characters are alive, active, and guiding missile-firing drones on yippee shoots wherever and whenever they want, and there isn't a damn thing anyone can do about it.

Forget international law - - forget any law - - because these people are above the law and out of control and there isn't a chance that anyone will be held accountable for the death of some raghead tribal kids and their parents. But before we continue describing the CIA's most recent off-the-wall delinquency, let's examine the region where it took place, because the customs and culture of the tribes are relevant to any action taken in their homeland. It is essential that US citizens gain understanding of the wider world, because America is deeply involved in every country on our planet.

By: Feroz Pakistani