Friends
All else equal, it’s harder to win a fight when the guy who can help you the most appears to want the other side to win.
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I had just sent the Slate version of this news story to a few friends. It highlighted the 2007 attack–now apparently by the Pakistani military–which the US “played down.” Incredible but totally believable. With friends like these, who needs enemies?
Well, the US Government needs to play it down. It’s kind of like the way Henry and Jimmy reacted when the Gambino Family killed Tommy in Goodfellas: “…there was nothing we could do…we had to sit still and take it.” Why? Because even though the Gambinos killed Tommy, Henry and Jimmy couldn’t run their schemes without protection from the Gambinos. Hence, they made the unpalatable choice to do nothing as viable alternatives didn’t exist. I see lots of parallels to the US situation in Afghanistan: the Pakistanis are the Gambinos and the US are Henry and Jimmy.