Is this the "outreach" or the "smart" part of our hope and change not-Bush diplomacy (tip to Instapundit)?
After four years of Barack Obama's diplomatic 'leadership' and billions of dollars in attempted friendship aid, a new public opinion poll reveals that 92% of Pakistanis now disapprove of the United States.
Mind you, I support our raid on Abbotabad to kill Osama bin Laden which is what has collapsed already low Pakistani opinion of us. Good for the president on that call.
And at some level, I figure that if Moslems don't like us because we kill murderous jihadis and liberate people from their influence, that's a problem with Moslem perceptions of good versus bad rather than a problem with what we are doing.
And in defense of our actions, it is not true that we violate Pakistani sovereignty. We do this with the cooperation and permission of the Pakistani government. Their government just doesn't want to admit it (see that Gallup poll).
Further, it is not fair to ask how we'd feel if Canada was flying armed drones over our territory. One, it matters whether they do it with our permission as we do in Pakistan. And even if we don't grant permission, are we allowing anti-Canada rebels to operate out of our territory? Or are we incapable of suppressing such rebels or terrorists? Canada would be justified in acting in either case of our failure to police our territory.
But appearing to override Pakistani sovereignty and attacking the folk hero al Qaeda organization--which was what the Abbotabad raid combined--is half of the problem I always worried about in regard to drone strikes.
As we draw down our troop strength in Afghanistan and reduce our role even before leaving, the importance of having Pakistan on board the fight against the Taliban threat that spans the Afghanistan-Pakistan border is heightened.
I keep waiting for the Pakistanis to get fully on board the fight. So far the sanctuaries remain intact. This is a problem. And unlikely to get better if the government heeds public disapproval of cooperation with America.
Speaking of outrage when foreigners enter another state's territory to kill their enemies without the state's permission, where's the Western outrage when a jihadi tries to kill a Danish civilian--Lars Hedegaard--the jihadis don't like? The jihadis have an advantage over us, of course. They have no need to fly over us since they have the freedom to simply live among us until they can kill.
Ah, but that's different. When they hate us, we ask what we did to deserve that hate. If we fail to embrace them--let alone mildly disapprove of them--we ask why we are so awful.
UPDATE: Hedagaard explains the issue. How can the left wing be so friendly to the jihadis is beyond me. Does shared hostility to the West really override purported concerns for values the left supposedly cherishes that will evaporate if the Islamists gain more influence within the West?
And if we won't resist the Islamists, how can we expect ordinary Moslems who have no reason to want to live under Islamist rule to resist?
