Taking Offence

The blow to the national pride of Pakistan cannot be ameliorated; it has suffered a mortal bruise, the honour of the State has been impugned, its sovereignty assaulted and insulted, its reputation blighted, and this is simply unforgivable. It is this righteously sanctimonious affront that must be appeased.

And the United States appears to be going out of its way to attempt to soothe Pakistan's ruffled feathers.

Chiding official Pakistan, yes, but assuring it at the same time that it is held in high regard, that its co-operation and trusting friendship is indispensable to the United States. In the "war on terror". As though the impetus for encouraging terror has nothing whatever to do with Pakistan's official decision-making and choices and actions.

The fiction that Pakistan is involved in helping to cleanse the world of the blight of terror is one that Pakistan huffily enjoys declaring, and that the United States seems happy enough to support. While knowing full well that at every level of government institutions from elected executive positions to military appointments and the secret service, there is the rotten contamination of terror-mongers.

"Their families don't have any idea where they have been taken. Nobody knows what they have done. They are poor people." A resident of Abbottabad

It was entirely unexpected, confounding, beyond belief that Osama bin Laden was comfortably ensconced with his intimate companions and various wives in a garrison town bristling with elite military of the Pakistan army. Who might have imagined such a thing? Certainly not the government of Pakistan, its military or its secret service.

And it is unspeakably intolerable that the CIA had knowledge of the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden and was loath to share that information with Pakistan. How utterly insulting. It is unsupportable that the U.S. State Department, the President's office, the CIA and Navy SEALS conspired to enter Pakistani airspace unauthorized and unbidden to spectacularly enact a kill.

Heads will roll. The first to lose his may be Major Amir Azia, a physician in the Pakistan Army Medical Corps who just happened to live right next to the bin Laden compound. And who, it appeared, collaborated with the CIA. Along with perhaps five other military personnel who had the mistaken impression that they were simply acting in good faith and on trust with an ally.

Moreover, 35 to 40 other people have seemed to have vanished, and no one appears to know where they are, what is happening with them: "some people who were detained from a house close to Osama's compound" are believed to have been "used by the CIA". One, a milkman who delivered his product to the compound.

One can only surmise that the Inter-Service Intelligence may have decided to open a dairy and are seeking advice. This, as a diversion from their usual tactics of helping militants stage their attacks on NATO troops cluttering up the Afghanistan landscape.