Pakistan: the New Cambodia

See this very informative essay by William Pfaff: "The New 'Invasion of Cambodia.'"

Pfaff notes, among other things, that the Taliban was created by Pakistani Intelligence in order to cooperate with and facilitate the U.S.'s backing of the mujahideen in their proxy war against the USSR in Afghanistan. Pakistan, in other words, was doing its part for U.S. schemes.

Both Pakistan and the U.S. managed to generate their own blowback, just as Israel did in 1982 when it invaded Lebanon in an effort to wipe out the PLO, most dramatically and grievously by facilitating and allowing the Sabra-Shatila massacre of Palestinians left defenseless when PLO forces under Yassir Arafat accepted evacuation instead of staying and fighting.

In so doing, Israel succeeded not in destroying the PLO but in creating a more militant version of the PLO: the Hezbollah.

The suicide bomber tactic that has so plagued Israel since and that Israel cites as a reason why its terrorist opponents are so horrible, was developed by Hezbollah because of Israel's attack.

Can there be any more dramatic an example of blowback than this - other than, of course, 9/11?

Pakistan is both a powder keg and a nation with nuclear weapons. What harvest of bitter fruit are Bush and Obama reaping?