Eric Margolis is a known name in the global media. In an article last month, he quoted a US general, who told him that the Pentagon is convinced the US can 'still' defeat the Taliban and its allies "if only we can go after their sanctuaries in Pakistan." This, however, isn't the impression you get from the statements of US diplomats.
History shows that, in pursuit of the Viet Cong, frustrated US commanders expanded the Vietnam war into Cambodia and Laos, and despite battering these two neighbours of Vietnam, the US lost that war. The shocking part is that the Americans did not hold either their presidents or generals accountable for this disaster.
According to Margolis, Washington's neo-conservatives and their media allies consider Pakistan a grave threat to the US and Israeli interests, and, therefore, it must be declawed and dismembered, and its nuclear arsenal is reportedly being targeted for seizure or elimination by US Special Forces - a belief most Pakistanis share.
After the electoral losses in the mid-term elections and fear of being branded "soft on terrorism", the Democrats may back this strategy, and permit more and deeper US air and land strikes into Pakistan. Let us hope that Margolis is overly pessimistic and this won't happen. In a recent article, former US Assistant Treasury Secretary Paul Craig Roberts sounds as worried.
According to him, "not only is Obama violating the sovereignty of an American ally, Pakistan, by sending in drones and [US] Special Forces teams to murder Pakistani civilians but, in addition, Obama has a list of American citizens whom he intends to murder without arrest, presentation of evidence, trial and conviction."
Apparently, the US history has taken a more horrible turn. That's why the American public still hasn't shown its disapproval of the US and IASF intrusions into Pakistan. But a nation that has become accustomed to believing in the supremacy of the US interests over every civilised value can't react the way the world expects it to.
This is the greatest tragedy of our time, in particular for Muslims. As long as the US governments continue to trample civilised values to defend 'US interests', things will go from bad to worse. This is the continuing tragedy that the clueless ordinary Americans (with claims to being nobody's enemy) don't notice.