Slaughter in Pakistan and Agent/Diplomat Raymond Davis

The bottom line in the Raymond Davis case is that Pakistan has no authority to hold or prosecute Raymond Davis; everything else is mere discussion…but what a lot of discussion there is to be had!

 

Raymond Davis was travelling in a dense, old part of the center of Lahore, in a rented car (with Pakistani driver) with Pakistani license plates. Along the way, he was accosted by two people whom he shot and killed, stating that he was feeling “threatened” for his safety and that they were trying to rob him.

 

In the US, that is enough reason to kill a person.

I recall, years ago,  one Halloween evening in Florida, kids were out trick-or-treating and this Japanese boy got lost and he went to a door to ask for directions. The “MAN” of the household decided the boy was a threat and shot him to death…the courts allowed the claim of self-defense and the man was exonerated. We also recall the case of woodcarver John Williams right here in Seattle. He was carrying a 3″ (7.62 cm) knife in the streets of the city when a Police officer decided this “Injun” was too threatening and shot him…four times, just the make sure he was dead.

But we digress…

 

Surprisingly, Pakistan Police came and arrested him…the wonder is that Police in Pakistan was that quick!

In the meantime, Davis had probably called the US Consulate and they sent a rescue car post-haste…so post haste that the driver ran over and killed a pedestrian, but never slowed down.

 

The Police found a number of guns and ammunition in the trunk of Davis’ rental car, along with other material that suggested Davis was reconnoitering the area for “trrrrrsts” and their holdouts.

 

At first, the US Embassy demanded the release of Davis that he was a diplomat working for the Embassy in Islamabad, then the story “clarified” that he was working for the Lahore Consulate…and now we are told that he was a contractor for the CIA, working under Diplomatic cover, for the CIA. We now also know that Davis and his wife operate a ‘Security” contractor business (with no other employees) out of Phoenix, AZ and that he is an ex-Special Services soldier.

 

The one thing the US is hanging on to is that he had a diplomatic passport and he must be released immediately. There have ben a number of arguments as to why he should not be released because he really was not a diplomat, but those arguments are emotional and nor legal. There have also been suggestions that he did not have a diplomatic passport until the US cooked one up just for the occasion, but that too, is irrelevant.

 

When a person applies for a visa to visit Pakistan s-he has to state the reason for their visit and that is on the visa application BEFORE a visa is stamped onto a passport. In cases of diplomatic passports, the application hast to state that the person is applying for a diplomatic visa and the application is accompanied by a letter from the State Department…all of which go straight into the files at the Pakistan Embassy before a visa is issued. Thus, if Davis was indeed, issued a diplomatic passport it would not take more than a few hours to verify that fact from the Pakistan Consulate in the US; the fact that Pakistan has not disputed Davis’ diplomatic status, suggests that this issue is not in doubt.

 

Many people from every country in the world including Pakistan, go to another country under cover of diplomatic status and conduct all kinds of activities and if they are discovered, the host country kicks them out, saying they were “conducting activities incompatible with their status“. A diplomatic visa cannot be cancelled, the “diplomat” must be expelled, not prosecuted, no matter what happens.

So that is that; Davis must be returned to the US, no matter how upsetting this would be.

 

But the unresolved questions….!

 

What was Davis doing in the middle of Lahore, with guns, camera and GPS equipment, if not targeting sites for other US forces to attack?

There are altogether too many American soldiers and Special Forces personnel in Pakistan, killing people who are simply “suspects” in America’s never-ending “War!” against “Terror”. Pakistanis are being killed by Drone attacks and by US soldiers in civilian clothing and they are being killed without a second thought…it does not matter whether the Pakistanis killed are “suspects”, combatants, “terrorists” or civilians in the wrong place…or even families; once Rome’s armies decide to go for the kill, there are no innocents.

 

On many occasions, the US has killed dozens of innocents before killing the actual “suspect”, but there is never a thought given to the dead. If there is a lot of pressure, the US will allow a financial “compensation” of anywhere between $1000 and $2000 per person and call it even…this paltry amount of money is often less that the cost of the ammunition used to kill the people with!

There is nothing to motivate the US to pay more attention before killing a man, woman of child or all three, just because the shooter (drone/soldier) decides the targets look like “trrrrrsts“.

 

What if the host countries of Pakistan and Afghanistan decided to order the US forces to prove every person they kill (IF kill, they must), to be a hostile and active threat to the US and its forces, within 24 hours of the killing? If the US fails to provide the evidence within 24 hours, then the US must pay a compensation of ONE MILLION dollars per innocent person.

 

Why not? This level of monetary compensation is the only thing that could “help” the US be more certain of their targets before giving the “clear-to-kill” order and the only thing that would force the decision makers to investigate the deaths of people in Pakistan and Afghanistan…well, maybe only Pakistan because Afghanistan is still under occupation (in spite of being declared “Free”). Providing complete proof with 24 hours should not present any problem because one would hope that the guilt of the “target” has been properly and fully established before the order it sent to “eliminate” him and his family!

 

What kind of government does Pakistan have, that they would permit the willful and continuous slaughter of thousands of its people, by a foreign (US) military whose soldiers wander around in Pakistan in civilian clothing killing whoever they wish?

What sort of government in Pakistan, would actually give bases to another nation (US) so they can base their remote killing machines (drones) which then fly around Pakistan with impunity, killing anyone the handlers see fit…handlers who are flying the machines from operating centers in Texas and Louisiana?

 

If Pakistani politicians and the Pakistan military feel so little for their own people, why should the people tolerate such disassociated “leaders”?

 

Pakistan society has become so endemically corrupt, thanks to the endless stream of dollars in our “War!”s against the Communists (post-1977) and “terror” (post 9-11), that their political leaders, their civil servants and their militaries have become almost totally indifferent to how many Pakistanis are slaughtered by the US, as long as the money keeps flowing in and as long as the unwashed “trrrrrsts” are along the Afghan border or, are people who are against the government (religious “extremists”).

 

Such brainless policies and practices only serve to alienate more and more people in Pakistan and by extension, more and more Muslims who feel this “War!” is aimed against Muslims…a thought that is increasingly difficult to avoid.

In the end, the beneficiaries of such an ill-conceived “War!” are the successive cadres of military officers in Pakistan, the political leaders of Pakistan (who assiduously put their ill-gotten gains into banks and properties right here in the US and in Europe), the political leaders in the US (who desperately need a continuous presence of an undefeated-yet-about-to-be-defeated enemy) and the well-recognized, military-Industrial Complex of the US which can look forward to endless business of selling us more equipment to kill more “trrrrrsts“.

The net losers are the people of Pakistan; those who lose their lives, their families and those who are forced into poorer and poorer states of living because the country is unwilling to spend money for development for the people and instead funnels the money to its supporters.

 

This phony “War!” against “Terror” has already claimed over a million lives and tragically, it will continue to claim more lives…who knows how many…another million? two million? who is counting when there is good business to be had?

America’s appetite for killing others is endless, but its appetite for having REAL Americans dies is very little so, it may be that America will withdraw its forces in the near future, but maintain “contractors” who will continue the slaughter. Contractors are the faceless “us” who don’t count because their deaths are not acknowledged so, Americans will not know how many contractors are killed (very few, compared to the hundred-fold killing of “trrrrrsts“).

 

In the end, it will be a remote “War!” with the killing outsourced to American contractors and the host countries like Pakistan, who share with the US, the lack of regard for the massive numbers of people slaughtered.

I would think this would be an excellent case for a violent overthrow of the Pakistan government and the top levels of its military.

 

Chairman Mao, where are you when the people of Pakistan need you so badly?