MPs ask Pakistan to quit US alliance, boost ties with Iran, China, Russia

[Purveyor]

Lawmakers from ruling and opposition parties joined hands on Tuesday to condemn threats by US presidential hopefuls and officials to go for strikes into Pakistan's tribal region.

Taking part in National Assembly debate on the US threats, the MPs urged the government to quit the US-led coalition and also review its foreign policy.

"We should end alliance with the United States and reject American aid which can degrade us," Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Syed Tanveer Hussain told the Lower House of the parliament.

He said Pakistan must further expand ties with Iran, China and Russia instead of the United States.

--
Taking part in the debate Mian Amin Aslam said that Pak-US ties are based on 'love-hate relationship' but for the last four months public concerns have increased due to certain negative developments.

He said it is indeed a matter of serious concern that despite Pakistan being in the forefront of war on terror, sacrificing its soldiers, the US administration has made its aid conditional to its future role in this war.

---EOE---

http://www2.irna.ir/en/news/view/menu-234/0708082216112758.htm

[beberocks]

1. Boy, these people really get huffy when we threaten to annihilate them

I hope that all US politician would learn that threats usually
do not produce the desired results. Just like "bomb
Iran" comments, it just cements a hatred and mistrust of
the US worldwide. Especially considering how fragile
Musharraf's position is, and that Pakistan has nuclear
weapons, bragging that you would invade/bomb the country isn't
going to get any cooperation from them.

[TwilightGardener]

2. I'm missing the part where anyone threatened to annihilate Pakistan.

Could you direct me to that specific statement? If you're talking about a hypothetical situation in which surgical strikes are conducted just over the border on OBL and other high-value targets who killed thousands of our people and continue to recruit more dead-enders to do the same again, then I guess we're talking about apples and oranges, aren't we?

[beberocks]

3. I guess you can't recognize EXTREME sarcasm when you see it?

[TwilightGardener]

4. I picked up on some sarcasm, but you were making a genuine point somewhere

in there, and I responded to it.

[beberocks]

5. The point I am trying to make is that threats usually elicit a very visceral response

A response like, we better arm ourselves with nukes or the
U.S. is going to invade/kill us. It is in Pakistan's best
interest to "get rid" of OBL, but with the very
public talk of invading Pakistan isn't helping to get him, it
just makes the Arab world more angry at the U.S.

[TwilightGardener]

7. First of all, I don't believe Pakistan is part of the Arab world. Pakistan isn't arming itself

with nukes because a second-place Dem Presidential candidate states he is HYPOTHETICALLY willing to pursue a handful of high-level terrorists into Waziristan. Pakistan already had nukes--because India has nukes. There is no threat to "invade" Pakistan, the same way we invaded Iraq--that's a joke. Musharraf just wants us to keep propping him up in power and uses the (very real) threat of Islamic radicals taking over his nukes (after a coup) to keep extorting us into giving him billions of dollars in aid, without taking an effective role in fighting AQ and the Taliban within his own borders. That's why Congress recently attached anti-terrorism conditions to our aid package. Musharraf hasn't gotten rid of OBL because apparently, for complex reasons, it is not in Musharraf's best interests to do so--otherwise, he would have given us (and we would have asked for) explicit permission to cross the border and do it in 2001 or 2002. This tells you that it also isn't in Chimpy's best interests to get rid of OBL, either--we let him escape. He has an indefinite safe harbor, even with a world community who has condemned him, and two nations who are supposedly on his tail militarily and intelligence-wise.

[ThomWV]

6. Obama did last week.

[TwilightGardener]

8. Oops, your hyperbole is showing.