… take Dana Rohrabacher, Republican congressman from California’s 46th District, for example.
Rohrabacher has set off a storm of anti-American protests in Pakistan — like we need more of that — by deciding that now is a good time to call for Baluchistanis to have their chance at independence.
In addition to the riots reported in the U.S. press, Pakistani news reports – here, here and here — imply that Rohrabacher’s resolution, which has absolutely no chance of being passed by Congress, is being used by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) to further fuel anti-American sentiment:
Also present at the rally was DPC member Hamid Gul, who headed Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency during the 1980s Pakistani-sponsored war against Soviet troops in Afghanistan that gave rise to al Qaeda and the Taliban.
His membership has fuelled suspicions that Pakistan’s security establishment is backing the coalition as a means of exerting pressure on the weak government and whipping up rhetoric against the unpopular US alliance.
The ISI are the folks who are constantly undermining our efforts to support a stable Afghanistan, because they consider it less a country than “strategic depth” protecting Pakistan from invaders.
Rohrabacher isn’t just picking a fight with Pakistan, though: as seen in the map above borrowed from Wikipedia’s “Balochistan” page, ethnic Baluchis are found in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran. Three countries we don’t need any more trouble with right now.
Rohrabacher has long been known for being to the very far right of the Republican Party. Uninformed resolutions like this one, and statements like this one on clearcutting the rain forests, make it obvious that his ascension to the chairmanship of a House Foreign Affairs Committee subcommittee is based entirely on seniority, and not brainpower. The man’s an idiot.
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