From: The Watcher’s Council

The Council has spoken, the votes have been cast and the results of these week’s contest are inscribed in the Great Kozmic Archives.

This week of course, everyone’s mind was on the killing of Osama bin-Laden in Pakistan and this week’s winner, Joshuapundit, took a look at our rather troubled relationship with that country, why it continues and what we can expect from it in the future in Pakistan, A Bridge Too Far. Here’s a slice:

Pakistan is a basket case of a country cobbled together out of different nationalities that mostly hate each other almost as much as they hate the West. The economy is bankrupt, the government is even more than usually corrupt ( President Zardari is widely known in Pakistan by his nickname, ‘Mr. Ten Per Cent’), and the country has a population of 187 million people it’s incapable of supporting. Most of what passes for it’s educational system is in the hands of jihad-spouting madrassahs and the only institutions that actually work are the army and the ISI.

It’s a country that has been responsible for far more terrorism than ever emanated out of Afghanistan and one that even committed genocide in Bengal back in the 1970′s, and I agree with Rep. Allen West that we shouldn’t be giving them so much as a thin dime’s worth of foreign aid. But unfortunately we’ll continue to bribe them at least as long as we’re in Afghanistan for allowing 75% of the supplies for our troops there to land at the Pakistani port of Karachi and be shipped through their territory overland through the Torkhum Pass.

In the end, that’s what it comes down to, and there’s no sense venting outrage over it. But let’s not make the mistake of thinking of them as trustworthy allies. They aren’t, and changing the basic reality of Pakistan is simply a bridge too far.

The sooner we confront that reality, the better.

This week’s non-Council winner was a fine piece by ex-SEAL Froggy over at BlackFive entitled Squandering Our Victory, a great examination of how the Obama Administration’s post raid actions and flaky, ever-changing narratives are damaging the impact of our SEALs taking out Osama bin-Laden.

Here are this week’s full results:

Council Winners

Non-Council Winners

A Happy Mother’s Day To You All… Remember, mothers make the world go round, so don’t forget yours.

See you next week!