October surprise

Face it.  When it comes to October surprises, an administration of this degree of malignancy could create a surprise out of just about anything.  But listening to Bart Gellman talking about the machinations of Dick Cheney and about some of Cheney's choice enemies, my latest guess would be Pakistan. 

Perhaps another clue to that is the presence (and shameless aggression) of US military and intelligence in Pakistan right now.  My first guess was bin Laden's head on a pike.  Well, they'd enjoy that and maybe they'll actually find the guy.  But taking control over Pakistan is something that really has the feel of a Cheney project to me.

Aha.  About two minutes after this got posted, NPR had a news item on Pakistan.  More later.

Update:  The chairman of the Joint Chiefs took off to Pakistan today.  NYT

Evening UPDATE:   And away we go.

The American War Moves to Pakistan
Bush's War Widens Dangerously
By Tariq Ali

The decision to make public a presidential order of last July authorizing American strikes inside Pakistan without seeking the approval of the Pakistani government ends a long debate within, and on the periphery of, the Bush administration. Senator Barack Obama, aware of this ongoing debate during his own long battle with Hillary Clinton, tried to outflank her by supporting a policy of U.S. strikes into Pakistan. Senator John McCain and Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin have now echoed this view and so it has become, by consensus, official U.S. policy.

Its effects on Pakistan could be catastrophic, creating a severe crisis within the army and in the country at large. The overwhelming majority of Pakistanis are opposed to the U.S. presence in the region, viewing it as the most serious threat to peace.

Why, then, has the U.S. decided to destabilize a crucial ally? Within Pakistan, some analysts argue that this is a carefully coordinated move to weaken the Pakistani state yet further by creating a crisis that extends way beyond the badlands on the frontier with Afghanistan. Its ultimate aim, they claim, would be the extraction of the Pakistani military's nuclear fangs. If this were the case, it would imply that Washington was indeed determined to break up the Pakistani state, since the country would very simply not survive a disaster on that scale....  TomDispatch

Comments

[skylights]

Playing with fire. Which major U.S. city will have a mushroom cloud over it first?