Talk about letting the cat out of the bag Surely Admiral Mike Mullen, US Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff, has done just that by announcing, with great fanfare, clashing of cymbals and thunderous beating of a very large drum, that Pakistan is going to mount an offensive against Al-Qaeda in North Waziristan as America wants them rooted out. Now of course, knowing full well that militants do watch television, do listen to the radio, do read newspapers, do use the internet and mobile phones, the Admiral is going to sit complacently on his haunches, while these self-same militants move their operations elsewhere prior to any action being instigated by General Kayani and then, when the net comes up empty, accuse Pakistan of not doing enough to fight the so-called 'war on terror. North Waziristan is the epicentre of terrorism. It is where Al-Qaeda lives, says the Admiral - much as America and Britain yelled: Saddam. Weapons of Mass Destruction. Take out Iraq - and we all know what farcical nonsense that turned out to be and at what and whos cost and now its our turn. Having failed, abysmally, in Afghanistan the Great Satan is, apparently, determined to debauch Pakistan too: drones keep on coming, innocent people are murdered, entire communities terrorised by troops across the northern border and air incursions multiply to the point where one has to wonder if America has declared open season on us without having the guts to say it. At the same time, and on an almost daily basis, there are reports of this American-based multinational, that American company, this American technique along with technicians and those American aid programmes being launched in every single nook and cranny of the country as if, without us catching on, they are quietly occupying us, readying to take us over from within as well as from without. Then, of course, there is that great big lever the money factor which is where that bully, unparalleled Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State has a habit of entering the fray. Her last attack, launched from Brussels where a ministerial session of the 'Friends of Democratic Pakistan has just taken place, started out with, for once, more than a soupcon of commonsense which, for this woman of wrath, makes a surprising change. Its absolutely unacceptable for those with means in Pakistan not to be doing their fair share to help their own people while taxpayers in Europe, the United States and other contributing countries are all chipping in, she stridently and rightly insisted in relation to assisting the flood affected millions to pick up the pieces of their lives. But did she have to do this in such a way as to turn the global public firmly against every single individual here? Did she have to tar us all with the exact same brush? Of course not but, unfortunately, this appears to be how her mind ticks when it comes to anything and everyone in the 'Land of the Pure. The wicked witch followed this up with, as she has the habit of doing, an un-thought out, rather jumbled up mess of words which appears to demand: The government must require that the economically affluent and elite support the government and people of Pakistan. For the haves to support the have-nots is totally understandable and highly desirable of course butinst-ructing the 'economically affluent and elite to support the government is beyond the pale. Would she, one wonders, be naive enough to hand over her cash, hard-earned or otherwise, to a body with the money grabbing, profiteering reputation this one rightly or wrong has? No way Jose The lady would keep her purse firmly zippeda manoeuvre she often needs to apply to her mouth. As time goes by, to paraphrase that vintage song, it seems that the Great Satan is out to get us one way or another by hook or by crook and probably the latter. They are slowly but surely out to colonise us, then milk us dry in the form of slave labour, slave agriculture, slaves to safeguard supplies to their army whilst ours is used as cannon fodder, they want Balochistan and Balochis to safeguard their pipeline route from Central Asia and Afghanistan to the coast where it will be loaded up and taken away for Americas benefit, they want to bankrupt us financially and morally although we are not doing too bad on these two points ourselves and they want, want and want and we, my friends, are, so far, playing right into their greedy, bullying, sneaky hands. As a nation statewe are well on the way to ruining ourselves by allowing this, along with a disgusting array of indigenous ills, situation to continue. Time to call a halt The writer is a Murree-based freelance columnist.