The Dignity of Moral Indignation

Pakistan is well and truly fed up. Their faultless assistance to the West in the interests of halting international jihad has been questioned once too often. Pakistan has made many sacrifices, all of them for naught, since the innuendos and accusations continue to mount. While Pakistan must continue to protect itself from the slurs and the slanders it has undergone in the process a humiliating and undeserved blow from its erstwhile partner in the war on terror.

Pakistan's parliamentarians will no longer facilitate American-led operations in their country. For their sovereignty has been breached once too often, and they have no intention of absorbing any further, future insults on this magnitude of order and insult. The adventure that blind-sided Pakistan's military and its secret service must never be permitted to repeat itself; the U.S. raid that culminated in the death of Osama bin Laden was intolerable.

What self-respecting country could, after all, abide the insult to its lawful autonomy suffered by Pakistan as a result of the "situation arising for unilateral U.S. action in Abbottabad". No consultation, no assistance requested, no permission to invade sovereign territory - unsupportable, insufferable, hubristic scorn of a trusted friend and staunch ally.

As for the drone strikes which Pakistan has made known at the very highest levels of American authority that it will no longer tolerate: "Such drone attacks must be stopped forthwith, failing which the government will be constrained to consider taking necessary steps including withdrawal of (the) transit facility allowed to NATO".

Now that's hitting them where it counts. It's been done before, on a strictly petulantly temporary basis, but this time it will be a permanent withdrawal of agreement - should NATO and specifically the United States not deign to apologize and to withhold from future such strikes. The NATO troop supplies transiting across the northwestern border crossings already under militant attacks may be withdrawn.

What then, NATO? Complete withdrawal of NATO troops, a suitable conclusion for all concerned. And then, of course, Afghanistan will be at the complete mercy of the Afghan Taliban, trained, protected, armed and given haven by official Pakistan which never dreamed that their own Pakistani Taliban would arise to offer them untold grief.

Still, with the Afghan Taliban back in place, Pakistan would be assured that its plans to possess its neighbour's 'trust', turning off any potential inroads by its political nemesis India, might very well eventuate. And then, emboldened by success, Pakistan could then return its attention to booting India out of Kashmir. And from there forward - who knows?

Perhaps it would be a matter of effectively striking India with nuclear weaponry before that country had the opportunity to respond with alacrity; that the damage done India would suffice to lend Pakistan the ultimate advantage....

Devious to the end ... and the end is deadly.