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TechnoratiUS Threatens to Escalate Operations Inside Pakistan
The US has told Pakistan that it may start launching drone attacks against the Taliban leadership in the city of Quetta in a major escalation of its operations in the country.
Washington has long been frustrated at Islamabad's reluctance to target the Afghan Taliban's ruling council, the Quetta Shura, which is accused of directing large parts of the insurgency across the border in Afghanistan.
![[Pakistan army soldiers patrol on a road in in Matta in Pakistan's troubled Swat Valley, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2009. Pakistani security forces are battling with Taliban fighters and other militant groups across the country's rugged northwest border with Afghanistan and Swat Valley. (AP Photo/Abadullah Khan)]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/pakistan_swat_ustoescalate.jpg "pakistan_swat_ustoescalate.jpg")
State department and intelligence officials delivered the ultimatum to Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan's president, last week as he visited the US for the United Nations' security council sessions and the G20 economic summit.
Pakistan's government has argued the Quetta Shura, led by Mullah Mohammad Omar, does not harm Pakistan. It has said that dealing with other militants such as those in the Swat valley was a higher priority.
But last week Anne Patterson, America's ambassador to Islamabad, told the Daily Telegraph that the offensive in Swat was not targeting the insurgents posing the greatest danger to Nato forces in Afghanistan.
An official at the Pakistani interior ministry told the Daily Telegraph: "The Americans said we have been raising this issue with you time and again. These elements are attacking Nato forces in southern Afghanistan, especially in Helmand. The Americans said 'If you don't take action, we will.'"
Rehman Malik, Pakistan's interior minister, said the US had so far been unable to provide detailed intelligence to target the Quetta Shura. He said: "We need real-time intelligence. The Americans have never told us any location."
US unmanned drone strikes have so far been confined to Pakistan's federally administrated tribal border regions where Islamabad holds little sway. But attacks in or around Quetta, in Baluchistan, would strike deep into the Pakistan government's territory and are likely to cause a huge outcry in the country.
Details of the shift in strategy emerged as Barack Obama, the US president, continued to reconsider his strategy for tackling the growing Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan. Gen James L. Jones, Mr Obama's national security adviser, said no deadline had been set for responding to an urgent request for up to 40,000 new troops from the senior Nato commander in Afghanistan.
Gen Stanley McChrystal made the request after delivering a strategic assessment which labelled the situation serious and deteriorating.
Polls show growing US opposition to the war in Afghanistan and several senior democrats have spoken out against sending more troops. Mr Obama said he was a "sceptical audience" to the request.
Joe Biden, US vice president, has argued that Washington should abandon ambitious military proposals and concentrate on more limited operations against al-Qaeda using drones and special forces.
Robert Gates, US defence secretary, denied a rift between the White House and Pentagon over the troop request and said Gen McChrystal was happy for the strategy to be decided before the troop request was considered. Mr Gates rejected calls to set a timetable for withdrawal from Afghanistan and said failure in Afghanistan "would be a huge setback for the United States".
Separately, the Afghan minister for energy and water has survived an assassination attempt when a car bomb exploded, killing at least four civilians and leaving 17 wounded.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack on Ismail Khan, who is one of Afghanistan's key political figures. The bomb exploded in the north western city of Herat as the former warlord's convoy was passing, leaving twisted wreckage littering the tree-lined road.
33 Comments so far
Show AllFrom the interview with Rory Stewart, Lynn Sherr's description of Afghanistan:
"Afghanistan is a difficult, mountainous land of corrupt warlords, complex alliances and ancient tribal hatreds."
Sounds a lot like the United States, except with more flatland.
We're attacking with somewhat randomly targeted smart weapons. In Denmark once, an American Harpoon ship-to-ship missile locked onto a beach house, went up, came vertically down on it, and destroyed it utterly.
All this takes place inside a nuclear-tipped country. Oh look, a Hellfire missile just wiped out half of Pakistan's equivalent to NORAD. I wonder if they have a backup command center?
The Pakistan-India nuclear saber-rattling rhetoric coming from their leaders is unbelievable to Americans, which is saying something. India claims that when Pakistan is wiped out India will still have 300 people alive because of its larger population and land area. I told you that you wouldn't believe this rhetoric. Pakistan counters that India is all flatland, perfect for Armegeddon. In mountainous Pakistan, a few people will survive behind hills and in tunnels.
"insurgents posing the greatest danger to NATO forces in Afghanistan"
The NATO forces in Afghanistan themselves are actually the greatest danger to NATO forces in Afghanistan.
Since they have no legitimate reason to be there in the first place.
Now the out-of-control US military wants to strike deep into Pakistan, raising the possibility of creating 100,000,000 more insurgents. Then we will have to send 3 million troops to Pakistan to put down that insurgency.
Quack-quack! It's the Aflac War.
Imagine what the world and the nation would be if these people in the US government spent their time thinking about what's going on within the borders of the US and how to make life better for the people.
What has to be done to strengthen the US is obvious. The list is long, and everyone will have his own conception of it. But the list does not include using military force against other nations.
War in these times is unarguable evidence of failure.
Talk about opening the GATES OF HELL! Pun intended.
A war against the Taliban in Pakistan? What are we talking about? Who are the Taliban?
I heard an interview of Rory Stewart, a writer who walked across Afghanistan, staying with families in the widely scattered and tiny villages in which 80-90% of Afghans live. According to Stewart, the Taliban, while hated by many for their harsh codes of behavior and punishment, consists of poor and illiterate farmers who could not locate the United States on a map. They have no ability to plan and launch an attack on the US. (On the other hand, al qaeda tends to be educated and more prosperous men from outside Afghanistan. Again, according to Stewart, there are a few hundred al qaeda in Afghanistan.)
Most of the population is uneducated and besieged in turn by Taliban, US troops, NGO's etc. They have no way to judge for sure whether anyone's intentions are good or bad. Like the majority of people anywhere, anytime all over the world, they would like to be left alone to live their lives.
So this Taliban in Pakistan - is it so different from the one in Afghanistan? Does it consist of poor farmers, religious fanatics roughly analogous to our own in Waco Texas? Article says "Pakistan's government has argued the Quetta Shura, led by Mullah Mohammad Omar, does not harm Pakistan". They probably know what they are talking about. The Taliban is an internal nuisance for Pakistan, and by the way one we helped create. Our best role would be to leave these people alone.
Another war, another BS rationale.
I watched an interview with Rory Stewart on Bill Moyers Journal -- Lynn Sherr was filling in for Mr. Moyers. It was a fascinating interview, and a completely fresh perspective on Afghanistan.
Here's the link in case someone wants to watch it:
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/09252009/watch.html
yeah i saw that interview. plus Rory said he explained all this to congress. everything the u.s. has ever done in Afghanistan depends upon total ignorance of everything about the country.
With drones made in Israel. I wonder how that registers with Pakistanis?
Obama Nuclear-Disarmament is trying his hand at becoming a war president!
I know, it's hard to follow an act such as Dubya's. But ya're getting there, Obama. Ya could easily outdo Dubya if ya invaded Iran. That'd be a real coup.
I feel bad for all of those sincere Americans, who followed and believed Obama, like lemmings. Obama has let down millions who were hypnotized by his rhetoric. I think now, that many millions have come out of the Obama trance and must feel empty, neutralized and in essence, cheated and lied to about "change".
What they have been given is the status quo, continuation of past Dubya policies, expansion of military adventures and the rewarding of the thieves of Wall Street. This man is no harbinger of change and he is no vanguard to restore the glaring wrongs of the Dubya past.
What a shame it all is. The naive dream of sincere millions has become their nightmare.
It is always embarrassing to learn you have been conned, but many of us tried our level best to let the Obama acolytes know that BO was nothing but a con man for the MIC, but alas to no avail! The naive dream of sincere millions true; but the problem is: so many millions are still dreaming the naive dream!
Sounds like an exit strategy.
The Big One!
With a timeline 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 OOPS!
This article is an excellent companion piece to the one directly above it as this is written: "Defense Sec. Gates: Afghan 'Exit Strategy' a 'Strategic Mistake'" wherein we are given some of the history of the Taliban versus the Afghan warlords. Pakistan itself helped establish the Taliban, which was a stabilizing influence in Afghanistan. That article does NOT tell us that the U.S. spent up to 300 million dollars assisting that effort. So now the U.S. wants Pakistan to attack those they helped establish. And the U.S. is more than willing to attack those they helped establish. This is all part of some stupid-ass Kissingerian / Brzezenskian "Great Game" bullshit that has never done anything more than get millions of people killed. It has to STOP.
"US Threatens to Escalate Operations Inside Pakistan"
Yup, I can't imagine anything going wrong with that plan...
Our military people are insane and have gone completely out of their minds. One more planned "pearl harbor" event, like 9/11, and the republic and what's left of our right to protest against these morons is dead.
This REMAINS nationally and internationally ILLEGAL with no declaration of war. Hell GATES, indeed!
genicon
Ask a baker if we should eat more bread.
Ask a brewer if we should drink more beer.
Ask a General if we should expand our wars.
Good one!
Good way to increase the number of "terrorists." Or, to put it another way, a good way to increase the number of patriotic Asians and freedom fighters eager to kill Americans.
General McChrystal said last night on 60 minutes that we have to convince the locals in Afghanistan that we are not here to occupy their country----is this guy insane or what!
"Or what" can definitely be ruled out.
One expects civilian and military warmongers to recycle the same century-old tropes to justify colonialist imperialism and triumphalism.
Just as bad, maybe worse, are moderate, centrist liberals who, out of classic liberal guilt, advocate benevolent intervention to atone for Amerikan abuses.
There's still the wistful fantasy afloat that Amerikan military forces can function as the Peace Corps with an attitude, by simply abandoning the tactics of harsh violence and atrocities in favor of nation-building secular missionary work.
Naturally, even non-aggressive military advisors, technicians, and the mercenary-- whoops, "contractor"-- infrastructure require security, and must be defended from Enemies seeking to undermine local progress. But the combat operations would be reactive, and/or careful to minimize collateral damage.
Benevolent intervention advocates really do invent a distinction between bad "occupying"-- i.e. showing up univited, destroying the place, then sticking around indefinitely pretending to pick up the pieces-- and GOOD "occupying", i.e. ACTUALLY picking up the pieces, even if we scatter a few around in the process.
They would like to believe that the latter occupation, because of its good intentions, isn't "really" an occupation at all. In their view, sweetening the deal with misplaced empathy makes the medicine go down.
So now it's my turn to ask: is that insane, or what?
· Yr Obd't Servant
Its a no brainer---it is total insanity!
We are (obviously) occupying your country but we are not here to occupy your country.
and similarly with iraq -- the rhetoric will be :
"it's YOUR fault (afghanis) that we're HERE now for over 8 years and WON'T be able to LEAVE for many decades more because you WON'T cooperate even if we keep telling YOU that we never, and don't intend to EVER OCCUPY your country or to fix your country by CHOOSING your leaders ....you afghanis just CAN'T BE TRUSTED...you keep HIDING these insurgents...you won't CLEAR the roads for our humvees...you keep using the munitions we GAVE YOU in ways that HARM our Relationship...you have NO understanding that we only want to win your HEARTS and MINDS..egad ,,, you won't even learn ENGLISH correctly...and make things SO difficult for US...that's the trouble here".
as abotu iraq , the standard American reflection on the IRAQIs:
"THEY HAVE TO REALIZE they have to be RESPONSIBLE"....
"we CAN"T always HOLD THEIR HAND for them"....
and the USA is NEVER at fault.
Right on, President Bush and Vice President Cheney are doing a great job. What? We have a new president? Could have fooled me. Seems like Cheney is still running the show and we are in the Bush Jr. third term.
The US is intent on creating more freedom fighter (terrorism according to the US). Good luck to all you americans traveling with your american passport.
Nothing but good news coming out of this administration. For the MIC, that is. I guess that's what they meant by "change you can believe in."
Zardari and his military are unhappy with one another. Hard to imagine why; Z is prostrating himself to India and the US/Israel, on either side of Pakistan, both Islam hating cultures. The ISI has always kept Pakistan safe, and will continue to try. The US/israel wants the weapons and a permanent presence. 27 killed near waziristan.
A false flag in the gulf of oman or the straits.....
It would be nice for the coalition of the KILLING to have troops in Pakistan too--that would complete the circle--cause the real plan is to take Iran.
Please take out a map of the Middle East, notice who is in the middle in this game--it is that Jew-hating, Holocaust denying thorn in the flesh Iran--notice what other nation has a land connection on the south east side at the bottom. I seriously believe that when we have enough troops on both sides the US will be given orders by Israel to attack--they really want that prick, the oil and the revenge--if you want to see how dangerous the president of that nation is, please compare his UN speech to that of his enemies--and reflect on what they say and more importantly DO and have done in the past--give it some real thought and then you decide who the real threat is in the Middle East--thank you for your time.
Drones with a 80-90% civilian kill rate.
On the sunny side, it seems the confederacy lost the war largely because the physical and financial burderns fell mostly on the yeoman farming families and was avoided by the wealthy cotton growers.
Same situation now, maybe this will end the USA's infernal eternal wars.
out of the frying pan..............