Not trying to start a flamewar...

[slinga]

Can someone explain why Pakistan and the US are so close? To me Pakistan seems to be pretty much the same as Afghanistan, Iraq, and other fundamental Islamic states. Possibly worse, considering they actually *have* nukes. In fact, Pakistan helped put the Taliban into power.

And then I read stuff like this, which is REALLY worrying: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4167260.stm

Which basically says that Pakistani's are encouraged to be militant in schools and by the government. When you consider that many of the London suicide bombers were either Pakistani or had recently travelled to Pakistan this is even more troubling. So why does the US have such close military, economic, and social ties to them? Sorry if I start a flamewar, I'm genuinely curious.

 

[joe81]

we're also alies with saudi arabia and jesus when one of the royals died did you see all of our governement officials that went. Ya and i forget how many of the 9/11 terrorists were saudi but it was the majority. Basically the US is allied with the dollar so i dont know maybe their are some oil deposits, possible sites for pipelines, prespects for oil refineries, drugs that we can profit from the sell to european countries, or some other reason we're allied for money.

oh and we also helped put the talibon in power and almost every other dictator in this world we've backed or funded at one point.

I just noticed that the US recomended that they scratch Social Studies from their curriculum that to me seems stupid i mean how are the kids supposed to learn about their government and other cultures? they probably wanted that out since it tells them how britian controlled their country for awhile and also talks about social movements against britian.

and to lighten my post up some how can we possibly be allies with britian i mean they burned down the white house? i mean we had to 2 massive wars with them and they once controled our country i mean jesus how can we be allies with them.(i'm being sarcastic)

 

[crystalmethod]

Wasn't it Canada that burnt down the White House?

 

[Dud]

Originally posted by crystalmethod@Sun, 2005-08-21 @ 03:46 PM

Wasn't it Canada that burnt down the White House?

[post=138515]Quoted post[/post]​

I love that. No, the British burned down the White House in The War of 1812, the Canadians fought alongside them in that war, but it was the British who were credited for that endeavor. I'm sure some Canadians wish they could take credit for that...

 

[it290]

Two things:

1. We're allied with Pakistan mainly for military/political reasons. Without their help we would have no chance of catching a lot of the Al Qaeda figures that have already been caught. The administration considers this so helpful that the US basically let AQ Khan get away with a slap on the wrist and didn't take any real action against the Pakistani government for one of the biggest world security risks of all time.

2. The Pakistani government is a secular one, although it's also more or less a dictatorship and a large chunk of the populace doesn't want secular rule.

 

[slinga]

Yeah I always thought it was Canada who burned the White House as well.

 

[SkankinMonkey]

Well Canada was under British rule during the war of 1812 so it's really a moot point, right?

 

[VertigoXX]

IMHO, when Pakistan and India start throwing nukes at one another in a few years, the US will side with India, the Chinese will side with Pakistan, then they'll attack Japan for good measure, Russia will errupt into a civil war between the pro-democracy government factions and the remaining factions from the KGB-era, the Swiss will declare that they're neutral but will gladly hold on to any valuables that have been seized by your armies, Saudi Arabia and several other Arabic nations in the mid-east will take the opportunity to attack Egypt and Israel, and that'll be the start of WWIII.

 

[SkankinMonkey]

What we need is intelligently implemented socialism with democratic (republic-based) ties.

 

[joe81]

it has worked in other countries(reply to skank)