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September 22, 2006
Be My Friend or I'll Whack You!
Ok, here's what Musharraf said:
NEW YORK - President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan said that after the Sept. 11 attacks the United States threatened to bomb his country if it did not cooperate with America’s campaign against the Taliban in Afghanistan.Musharraf, in an interview with CBS news magazine show “60 Minutes” that will air Sunday, said the threat came from Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and was given to Musharraf’s intelligence director.
“The intelligence director told me that (Armitage) said, ‘Be prepared to be bombed. Be prepared to go back to the Stone Age,”’ Musharraf said. “I think it was a very rude remark.”
Here's our spin:
Armitage was not immediately available to comment, and a Bush administration official said there would be no comment on a “reported conversation between Mr. Armitage and a Pakistani official.”But the official said: “After 9/11, Pakistan made a strategic decision to join the war on terror and has since been a steadfast partner in that effort. Pakistan’s commitment to this important endeavor has not wavered and our partnership has widened as a result.”
Let me get this straight. Be our strategic partner, or we'll bomb you back to the stone age. That's how we treat our putative friends.
No wonder we're so popular.
Posted by zeynep at September 22, 2006 07:21 AM