The Goose That Laid The Golden Egg

It should be obvious from the fact that Osama Bin Laden has been living a very comfortable life for the last 5 years in a mansion nestled in a very comfortable region of Pakistan that he was a well kept prisoner of the Pakistan Military.

No one can build a million dollar mansion in such a tight knit community that Abbottabad, Pakistan represents without the military being aware of 'what, when, where, how, and why.'

Let us not forget that Osama Bin Laden represents 1.25 Billion dollars in annual aid to Pakistan from the United States.  Without Bin Laden, that aid stops and Pakistan finds its self falling back onto the list of states that have failed.  With Bin Laden they had guaranteed themselves continued aid, they had guaranteed themselves the ability to meddle in Afghan affairs, and they found themselves with better leverage in the dealings with their age old nemesis, India.

What better way to ensure your income and prestige than to capture "the goose that laid the golden egg?"  What better place to keep the Osama than right next to your own military academy and amongst the retired generals of your own military?  Who would ever have looked in such a place?

International relations, or the games that nations play.....

From 9/11 to 2008 Pakistan received over $11 billion dollars in aid from the United States with the vast majority of the sum going to the Pakistani military.  We probably paid to build the mansion that Bin Laden was living in!

Then former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf is quoted as saying:

Former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf on Monday accused the U.S. of violating his country’s sovereignty by sending in special forces to kill Osama bin Laden.

“American troops coming across the border and taking action in one of our towns, that is Abbottabad, is not acceptable to the people of Pakistan. It is a violation of our sovereignty,” Mr. Musharraf told CNN-IBN, an Indian news channel.

He added that it would have been “far better if Pakistani Special Services Group had operated and conducted the mission. To that extent, the modality of handling it and executing the operation is not correct.”

Sure, Musharraf, turn the capture of Bin Laden over to a group of people who butter their bread on two sides.  We did that for most of the last 9 1/2 years and it got us nowhere.