Passive/Aggressive:  Mr. Masood wants us to know that he “feels our pain” and then he lets us know that it could get worse:

“The volatile situation in Pakistan is matched by the understandable outrage of Americans that the world’s most notorious terrorist lived unmolested for five years in a city teeming with Pakistani military officers. But any overreaction by Washington could endanger Pakistani democracy and further empower the military — or even lead to an outright military takeover. For the United States, support for Pakistan’s civilian, democratic government is the only way to assure regional peace, stability and prosperity.”

I am glad to hear that Mr. Masood understands that Americans are outraged that Osama bin Laden was living right under the Pakistani military’s noses. And, yes it is better for Pakistan to be run by a democracy rather than the military, but his threat that this is the only way to regional peace is absurd. That there will ever be peace in this region is a long shot, and that they want peace is questionable at best. Pakistan seems perfectly happy to keep the Taliban stirred-up, as well as comfortable in their role as safe haven for al-Qaeda. There is no reason for Pakistan to solve the problem of Islamist extremism in their region.  The United States pays Pakistan to rid these extremist, why should Pakistan get rid of their “bed and butter?”

Continuing his passive/aggressive diatribe Mr. Masood says:

“For Pakistan, America’s military and economic assistance is vital. Moreover, when Pakistan is facing enormous domestic difficulties, it can ill afford to antagonize America. Leaders in both countries must therefore step back from confrontation and find ways to repair the damage. Pushing Pakistan’s political leadership to the brink is not an option.”

The billions of dollars that America sends to Pakistan is indeed vital to their country.  And, it is very likely that withholding money is one of the options that would push Pakistan’s political leadership to the brink — make no mistake: it is very much an option that is on the mind of Americans.  In a May 20 Time magazine article David Von Drehle quotes Senator Frank Lautenberg: “Before we send another dime [to Pakistan], we need to know whether Pakistan truly stands with us in the fight against terrorism.”

(the lack of) Perspicuity: Mr. Masood writes that because of the secret American raid that killed bin Laden, there is now a lack of confidence from civil society regarding the military:

“The ability of the armed forces to guard the border with Afghanistan and the civilian government’s control over security matters have also been put into doubt.”

If Mr. Masood and the Pakistani civil society ever thought that their border with Afghanistan was safe they are all delusional.  When things get too “hot” in Afghanistan for al-Qaeda they head right across the border into Pakistan for a holiday.  Fareed Zakaria questions in a May 11 op-ed piece in the Washington Post: ” How is it that every major al-Qaeda official who has been captured since 2002 has been comfortably ensconced in a Pakistani city?”

It is being reported today that Pakistan has a new nuclear facility. The plant — about 140 miles from Islamabad —  was not there two years ago. It is almost certain that the billions of dollars that America has been pumping into Pakistan have, at least in part, gone toward Pakistan’s nuclear program allowing for this rapid buildup. Pakistani officials say that the buildup is in response to the threat from India.  Herein lies the problem: Pakistan feels their existential threat is India, not radical Islam.  If nuclear material falls into the wrong hands (and there are a lot of them in Pakistan) then ironically, the money that we have spent to fight terrorism may come back to haunt/explode us.

America does not intend to punish Pakistan, but we are out of patience.

I got a text Sunday night at 7:50 saying: “Usama bin Laden dead.  We got the bastard” It took me a few minutes to process the telegram-like text that my sister sent.  I remembered watching 9/11 unfold almost ten years ago and I said out loud, “finally.” I then immediately thought, “what now?”

I answered my own question: OBL’s death is the perfect reason to hasten our exit from Afghanistan.  Although troops are scheduled to start drawing down this summer, there has been a lot of talk about keeping the drawdown to a minimum. I hope this doesn’t happen. We should stay on schedule and start the drawdown in July, and continue quickly, leaving as few troops as possible to train Afghan forces to take over.  The timing of OBL’s death would be a terrible thing to waste.

America is spending billions of dollars a year in Afghanistan and Pakistan with very little to show for it (OSB’s death the exception). An article in the New York Times on Sunday reported on the difficulty and expense of building a road for the Afghans.  Costs skyrocketed because of security: America was not only paying to build the road, they had to pay Afghan tribal warlords to not shoot the people trying to build it!  Afghanistan is not amenable to our help. We are only making their corrupt government officials wealthy; we are not making ourselves safer. Yes, there are still al-Qaeda in Afghanistan but there are al-Qaeda in over sixty countries.  And, yes the Taliban will reemerge and women’s rights will be violated, but women’s rights are violated in Saudi Arabia and we aren’t sending troops there. America’s efforts to root out the Taliban and help the Afghans to a better way of life have been met with folded arms, corruption, and violence. You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.

It’s been reported that the Pakistani government was not told about the secret Navy S.E.A.L. operation.  This has to be because of one of two reasons: 1) The Pakistani government is not to be trusted, or, 2) The U.S. did in fact tell the Pakistani government, the Pakistani government ok’d the operation but asked to “deny” knowing.  This way the Pakistani government keeps the American dollars flowing in, but also keeps the Pakistani population happy.  Pakistanis do not like America and don’t want American troops in their country or in Afghanistan. Afghanistan cannot be ridden of al-Qaeda without Pakistan’s help.  The people of Pakistan have been rioting in outrage because we killed OSB; they have no intentions of helping us. Pakistan is number three, behind Israel and Egypt in aid from the United States. Why do we throw money at duplicitous governments with populations that hate us?  You can’t buy love.

President Obama is to be commended for his handling of the OBL situation thus far.  It was a gutsy move to fly into Pakistan and take OBL.  A drone attack would have killed more people and made it harder to identify the body. The decision to bury OBL at sea with a proper Muslim burial was also the right decision. OBL was not deserving of the burial, but it shows the moderate Muslim world that we are civilized and respectful of their religion. There is no good to come from releasing the gruesome pictures to quell any conspiracy theory that OBL may yet be alive.  If people believe the crazy theories, they will believe that the pictures have been faked.

Mr. Obama, bring our troops home and put them on the borders.  Instead of building roads in Afghanistan, take the money and rebuild Detroit or Tuscaloosa. We’ve sent a message to the rest of the world that if you kill innocent Americans we will come after you, we will hunt you down, and we won’t stop until we get you. Now send the message that we are only willing to help those that are willing to help themselves.