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Pakistan: U.S. Target bin Laden, not Islam, Afghanis
By Anwar Faruqi / The Associated Press

Pakistan’s President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said Wednesday in a speech to the nation that the U.S. decision to go after suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden does not target Islam or the people of Afghanistan.

Dressed in his military uniform, Musharraf spoke in the Urdu language in a nationally televised speech.

“Nowhere have the words Islam or the Afghan nation been mentioned,” in discussions between Pakistan and the United States about cooperating in efforts to battle terrorism, he said.

He warned that the terrorist attacks against the United States and Pakistan’s decision to help the United States find and prosecute the perpetrators has put the country in its worst crisis since its last war, with neighboring India, in 1971.

“Pakistan is passing through a very serious time,” he said. “Our decision today will impact on our future.”
(More: AP News Source)

...As bin Laden’s decision to support and lead terrorism shaped Afghanistan’s current crisis, so does it now shape Pakistan’s -- and any decisions made over the tragedy of the World Trade Center will shape the world’s. Even with the attack, still fresh in our minds and being replayed by the media (though less and less), are we now prepared to sustain the battle?

I think so,
Dan