Ah, Allies!

"I believe that some of the team left over the weekend and the remainder of the team will leave shortly.  This was a U.S. decision." Pentagon spokesman George Little

Brokering an agreement with an outraged Pakistan refusing to be mollified by the billions of dollars from the U.S. Treasury forwarded yearly for the support of the Pakistan military which sturdily supports the Afghan Taliban and the Pakistan Haqqani terror network, is not readily done.  Honour is involved; not national security necessarily, but of necessity national pride.


And that pride was irremediably pricked beyond repair when U.S. Navy SEALs flew into Abbottabad to embarrass the Pakistani military and its secret security apparatus by dispatching the world's number one terrorist.  Exacerbated by drones that target top-level Taliban, and dropped over the edge into unappeasable rage by an air strike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers who just happened to be firing on NATO and Afghan troops across the border.


Pakistan shut down the transportation route that NATO and ISAF used to ferry equipment into Afghanistan, a heavy traffic corridor that represented the most direct route.  Now closed off, by a petulant, white-hot-enraged loyal and dependable ally of NATO and the United States in their conflict against Islamist jihadists determined to export their brand of vicious hatred and violent destruction across another border - into Europe and North America.


The northern route that has been taken as a last resort to re-supply troops in Afghanistan is time-consuming and expensive; roughly 250% more expensive than the route shut off to the shipping of items through Pakistan.  Pakistan sought to negotiate new terms for using their country as a passage to resupply foreign troops in Afghanistan - millions of dollars to be extracted daily from its allies for that passage.


It was not amenable to reason, nor negotiation.  And when Defence Secretary Leon Panetta remarked in an interview that his country was becoming extremely frustrated and losing its patience with the impasse and the promises unmet, Pakistan's envoy to the United States had much to say in blaming the United States for its lack of diplomatic niceties.


Overlooked as inconvenient any acknowledgement of Pakistan's aid and haven to Islamist jihadists.  Little wonder, since Pakistan is where those jihadists schooled in violence were taught in its many madrasses, and coached in the use of arms in its many training camps.  These irrelevant details are simply other issues whose silent background reality cause continued 'misunderstandings' between these friends and allies.


Afghanistan will continue to be savaged by the Taliban simply because they have the continued and ongoing support of Pakistan which has its own plans for the future of its neighbour.