Post 26/11 reflections: ‘Mumbai attacks were a result of Pakistan’s flawed policy’
According to a December 2008 US embassy cable released by WikiLeaks, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi felt that the terrorist attacks in India on November 26, 2008 were a result of Pakistan’s flawed policy.
The cable, which has details of meetings between then-US Centcom chief General David Petraeus and Italian officials, features Berlusconi recounting that former president Pervez Musharraf had once told him that “he closed an eye” to keep peace and “now Pakistan was reaping the consequences of that choice”.
The cable states that “Berlusconi advocated pushing international financial institutions to help Pakistan but only on condition that the government of Pakistan takes serious action against terrorist and extremist groups on its soil.”
Berlusconi also told Petraeus that he had talked to President Asif Ali Zardari at Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s request, and had “reinforced the need to crack down on Pakistan’s indigenous Taliban.”
Petraeus, for his part, said that the Mumbai attacks were a ‘9/11 moment’ for Pakistan. He said that the “Zardari government now must contend with the fact that the fundamentalist movements Pakistan once nurtured and harboured now represent an existential threat to Pakistan that constitutes a greater threat than the one posed by India. He added that Pakistan’s economy was also nearing collapse, and that it had been down to three weeks of foreign exchange before the International Monetary Fund bridge loan.”
Published in The Express Tribune, August 31st, 2011.
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If Pakistanis can root out indian planted LTTE in Sri Lanka then we can do it at home as we have done 90% of it and soon when your uncle sam goes out of afghanistan you'll find its not good exporting terrorism in Pak :)
Some Invented Google Some Invented Facebook But Assange will be the Prince, He invented the deadliest war machine and he must be Getting paid real good now :p
I didn't know the Taliban were responsible for Mumbai attacks.
@J Oberoi
Agreed. Pakistan could have learned from India's experience with LTTE (in Sri Lanka).
Well if terrorism is the only export that pays ( Nepal, Burma poor countries who dont export terrorism, so no one pays them billions of dollars or pardon their loans off WB , IMF etc. ) why won't Pakistan cultivate, nurture, promote and export it ?
Once again, Pakistan Government gets the blame. All the other countries around Pakistan are as pure as the driven snow. I wonder what would happen if most of the major countries made it a rule for weapons to be banned at both the official and the man-in-the-street levels. It would take some time after all the trillions of dollars spent on weaponry, but a start has to be made some time. The biggest problem of course is that the average Pakistani, and people in other countries, do not trust their Governments, and quite tightly feel they need their weapons. The second biggest problem is that the sub continent is awash with weaponry, mainly supplied by Western countries, and it will probably take about 30 years to get rid of them. The third biggest problem is that the Western countries and their combined industrial/military complex are making so much money, out of weaponry, that they are unlikely to stop supplying the stuff any time soon. The world is out of control because of this, and the average politician does not have the power and/or ability to solve the problem, so guess what? The Moslem countries will be blamed with Pakistan, after Iran or equally, being at the centre of the blame game. It is my opinion that Pakistan will get most of the blame because they allowed the CIA to create the terrorist organizations within Pakistan/Afghanistan. The monster has been created and the U.S. will not take the blame. Their propaganda machine will place it all on Pakistan. However, do not worry. They really know how it started, and they cannot afford another war, can they? .
An entire nation's future was gambled away by supporting terrorists as a matter of state policy. There has not been a single instance of a nation succeeding after dabbling in terrorism.
@Ashok Sai - Please read before you comment - It says that 26/11 was to Pakistan what 9/11 was for the Al-Qaeda.
He's absolutely right - Pakistan is a seperate country - why the hell do these guys still not let go of their craze for India. I so soooo... hope Pakistan could be located elsewhere -Sub Saharan Africa seems like the ideal place
How I wish there would be a wide and deep sea between India and Pakistan. Imagine the growth and prosperity India would have had. My advise to the Pakistani "trouble guys" STICK TO UR OWN COUNTRY - LEAVE US IN PEACE
Petraeus, for his part, said that the Mumbai attacks were a ‘9/11 moment’ for Pakistan
Nuts, we Indians are the sufferers, I don't get this statement !