Liberty Star
10-11-2009, 11:50 AM
Last military dictator of holy land wants more money but is he also implying that there would have been no 9/11 had we not "abandoned" the "holy warriors we created"?
Pakistan's former President Pervez Musharraf struck a defiant note in a speech Saturday in Houston, saying the United States should contribute money, but not advice, to his country's counterterrorism efforts.
The U.S. should assist as Pakistan tries to root out the Taliban and al-Qaida from within its borders, “but don't get into micromanaging how to do it because we know how to do it better than you,” he said.
In an address sponsored by the World Affairs Counsel of Houston, Musharraf issued a stinging critique of U.S. conduct in neighboring Afghanistan and gave the 700 listeners at the Omni Hotel his formula for defeating the Taliban.
He said the U.S. and Pakistan created the mujahedeen, or holy warriors, who flocked to Afghanistan in the 1980s to throw off the Soviet invaders. But the U.S. abandoned 35,000 mujahedeen fighters after the Soviets were driven out, and they formed the nucleus of what would become al-Qaida, he said.
The United States made a mistake when it refused to recognize the Taliban as a legitimate government, throwing away a chance to influence them and paving the way for al-Qaida to become influential, Musharraf said.
The United States also erred by allowing the Northern Alliance, made up of ethnic minorities, to gain influence in the post-Taliban government instead of making more concessions to the Pashtun majority, he said.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6662154.html
Pakistan's former President Pervez Musharraf struck a defiant note in a speech Saturday in Houston, saying the United States should contribute money, but not advice, to his country's counterterrorism efforts.
The U.S. should assist as Pakistan tries to root out the Taliban and al-Qaida from within its borders, “but don't get into micromanaging how to do it because we know how to do it better than you,” he said.
In an address sponsored by the World Affairs Counsel of Houston, Musharraf issued a stinging critique of U.S. conduct in neighboring Afghanistan and gave the 700 listeners at the Omni Hotel his formula for defeating the Taliban.
He said the U.S. and Pakistan created the mujahedeen, or holy warriors, who flocked to Afghanistan in the 1980s to throw off the Soviet invaders. But the U.S. abandoned 35,000 mujahedeen fighters after the Soviets were driven out, and they formed the nucleus of what would become al-Qaida, he said.
The United States made a mistake when it refused to recognize the Taliban as a legitimate government, throwing away a chance to influence them and paving the way for al-Qaida to become influential, Musharraf said.
The United States also erred by allowing the Northern Alliance, made up of ethnic minorities, to gain influence in the post-Taliban government instead of making more concessions to the Pashtun majority, he said.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6662154.html