Pakistan’s Machiavellian Motives

The lead story in The New York Times this morning, “Pakistanis Tell of Motive in Taliban Leader’s Arrest,” show how Pakistan has been taking our money and tending to its own power politics at the same time.

The story describes how the ISI, Pakistani’s intelligence service, had been protecting the Taliban but then got upset when the militants started negotiating with the Afghanistan government in a freelance manner without keeping the Pakistanis informed. So Pakistan decided to arrest the Taliban’s operational leader, Abdul Baradar, and several other members of the Taliban leadership team to warn them, quote unquote — no flirting.

Meanwhile, the ISI used the C.I.A. and its more technical equipment to make the arrest, all the while keeping them in the dark about the real identity of Mr. Baradar.

The C.I.A. denies the accuracy of the story, but several experts in the United States affirm its plausibility.

The Machiavellian nature of these maneuverings, if true, demonstrate the labryinth we have become involved in overseas and our inability to control the situation as we see it. They also demonstrate how all the parties are defending themselves against loss of influence when we inevitably leave.

While Americans think in terms of years, the natives of the area are there for the long term and are taking what they believe are necessary measures for their own survival.