An Indian newspaper reports on Bin Laden's demise.
After finding and killing Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan, the US will now be re-assessing it's relationship with its ally, writes Sandy Gordon. The crucial issue is the future of nuclear-armed Pakistan, a country of 160 million, mixing a highly sophisticated - albeit semi-feudal - elite with a poorly educated, poverty ridden peasant and tribal mass base. The US will be doing its sums, including with the material seized from the Bin Laden compound in Abbottabad. Should it emerge that any elements in the Pakistani administration knew of his presence, it will be hard for the US to justify the US$ 3 billion aid package it provides to Pakistan each year, especially when it is bleeding financially itself. Added to this, the timing of Bin Laden's killing could give additional credibility to the plan to commence the US drawdown in Afghanistan by this July and complete the process by 2014. Given its massive financial problems, the US badly needs to refocus away from its wars and on to the economy. Ironically, conservatives, so complicit in starting the costly war in Iraq, now want to see the military budget, which will remain tight, refocused on major weapons systems and away from 'boots on the ground.' For them, the new challenge is China, not obscure Islamists in far off places.
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