US to hit militant safe havens in Pakistan

[muse]

I wish the LOIN of Pakistan...

I'm sure you mean LION of Pakistan, Shah e mardan, Khadim e Millat, Pervaiz Musharraf..

 

[moha199]

I'm sure you mean LION of Pakistan, Shah e mardan, Khadim e Millat, Pervaiz Musharraf..

Yes this is what i mean. I wish if he come back and show middle finger to world and take Pakistan back to its position.

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

None the less it is a simple platitude given freely, and you can spare yourself while others act for a betterment of the situation.

Day in day out, NATO and PA, and our growing FC, and ANA act. May they go forward together, for the alternative is the playground of simple idiocy. All those who would wish to lay down their arms at this combined nations feet, at those who would do them no harm, will do so with honour intact and serve all the peoples at their best.

Hogwash.

You have no explanations for how cross border raids by NATO move the situation forward. As I argued, they in fact make the job of the PA and the GoP harder. Don't try and weasel in the efforts of the PA and FC, when my criticism was specifically directed against NATO violations of Pakistani sovereignty, and not against PA efforts.

I have no love for Islamic extremists, but this is Pakistan's war, and Pakistanis will fight it.

NATO needs to get its own house in order in Afghanistan, instead of carrying out raids in Pakistani territory. Cut back on the 300 million dollars in drugs money funding the Taliban for starts, and lay of some of your 'exemplary patience' with the GoA that supports and runs many of these drug operations.

 

[muse]

Afghanistan's war has a new battlefield
By Syed Saleem Shahzad

KARACHI - In anticipation of a new era in Pakistani politics under president-in-waiting Asif Ali Zardari, the first volleys have been fired in a renewed joint Pakistan-North Atlantic Treaty Organization venture to fight against the Taliban and al-Qaeda beyond Afghanistan's borders.

Barely a week after a meeting on the US aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Indian Ocean between the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen, and the chief of the Pakistani Army Staff, General Ashfaq Pervez Kiani, to discuss infiltration points for militants going from Pakistan to Afghanistan and to pin-point al-Qaeda training camps, American Special forces carried out two attacks inside Pakistan.

On Wednesday morning, US special forces entered Angorada in the South Waziristan tribal area where members of al-Qaeda's shura (council), Arabs and Uzbeks were believed to be operating. The rugged mountainous area is also a known launching pad for militants staging attacks on a US military post in the Birmal area in Paktika province in Afghanistan.

The special forces, who flew in by helicopter to a small village, soon realized that they did not have the numbers or air cover to conduct effective search operations. Firing broke out and about 20 civilians are believed to have been killed before the forces withdrew.

Twenty-four hours later, four militants were killed in North Waziristan, reportedly by US special forces. The dead did not include any of the senior al-Qaeda or militant leaders who were said to have been in the area.

Contacts in Pakistan's strategic quarters told Asia Times Online that more cross-border attacks were likely as Pakistani intelligence was sharing information with the US on militant activities.

The idea of NATO or US forces stationed in Afghanistan staging raids into Pakistan was conceived in 2007 to eliminate top Taliban and al-Qaeda leaders and their safe sanctuaries. (See US homes in on militants in Pakistan Asia Times Online, January 30, 2008.)

With Pakistan's Zardari expected to be chosen as president on Saturday, and with the US presidential election campaign ripe for a dramatic turn in the "war on terror", Pakistan is poised to become an international battlefield.

Key to this is "Iron Man" Zardari, leader of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), the dominant party in the ruling coalition in Islamabad.

Although he is presently holed up in the premier's residence for fear of his safety from militant attacks, he has the security apparatus largely in check to force it to abandon its reservations about the "war on terror". Once president, he will be supreme commander of the armed forces and head of the National Security Council.

A man of many compromises
Zardari, widower of assassinated former premier Benazir Bhutto, has shown his ability to make political compromises to achieve his goals. For instance, the architect of the anti-Bhutto campaign in the 1988 elections, Husain Haqqani, who later dubbed Zardari "Mr 10%", was appointed by Zardari as Pakistan's ambassador to Washington. Haqqani, with good offices in the White House and among the neo-conservatives in Washington, lobbied successfully for the US to back the ouster this year of former president Pervez Musharraf.

Another example involves Pakistan's politically influential and financially strong media group run by the Haroon family, traditional opponents of the PPP. (Mehmood Haroon, then minister of the interior, in 1979 signed the execution order for Zulfikar Ali Bhutto on a murder charge. Zulfikar, father of Benazir, was a former president, premier and founder of the PPP.)

All the same, Zardari stunned the political community by appointing the eldest son of the family, Abdullah Hussain Haroon, as Pakistan's permanent representative to the United Nations and is looking to use the Haroon family's international connections for his benefit.

Zardari has also allied with many former Musharraf supporters, as well as with the influential religious group Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Islam led by the fiery Fazlur Rahman.

With his fingers firmly on the levers of power, and with strong American backing, Zardari will lead Pakistan into a new and potentially extremely bloody chapter of which the US special forces' raids into the country are just the beginning.

Syed Saleem Shahzad is Asia Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief. He can be reached at saleem_shahzad2002@yahoo.com

 

[786/92.]

.
How much is our Army professional…?

Pakistan Army is one of the best and most professional armies in the world, recognised as such by friends and foes. Pakistan also happens to be the largest contributer to UN Peacekeeping Forces and we're proud of our achievements which include victories in some of the most dangerous conflict zones around the world. :

Then why all that…???
Gen. Musharaf is gone and this is reality. This time is to face the reality and look forward. We have more brilliant people behind him. Neither our leadership is unaware of the situation, nor is American so silly to attack or harm Pakistan.

Please, no more and . Trust the leadership and its professional skills.

As far as our politics is concerned, I am sure People’s Party has grown its wisdom teeth. It will do what is best for Pakistan.

 

[Kharian_Beast]

.
How much is our Army professional…?



Then why all that…???
Gen. Musharaf is gone and this is reality. This time is to face the reality and look forward. We have more brilliant people behind him. Neither our leadership is unaware of the situation, nor is American so silly to attack or harm Pakistan.

Please, no more and . Trust the leadership and its professional skills.

As far as our politics is concerned, I am sure People’s Party has grown its wisdom teeth. It will do what is best for Pakistan.

Who puts faith in Musharraf or "People's" Party when we have the large and robust Pakistani manpower, especially those of us well trained and educated in all corners of this earth. This is the future leadership of the country, not the sons and friends of the same people over and over, the same failed policies and international begging and then being stabbed conveniently in the back.

 

[Spring Onion]

Who puts faith in Musharraf or "People's" Party when we have the large and robust Pakistani manpower, especially those of us well trained and educated in all corners of this earth. This is the future leadership of the country, not the sons and friends of the same people over and over, the same failed policies and international begging and then being stabbed conveniently in the back.

provided if the future skilled leadership dosnt sit outside the country and come back to motherland

 

[Task Force Black]

Hogwash.

You have no explanations for how cross border raids by NATO move the situation forward. As I argued, they in fact make the job of the PA and the GoP harder. Don't try and weasel in the efforts of the PA and FC, when my criticism was specifically directed against NATO violations of Pakistani sovereignty, and not against PA efforts.

I have no love for Islamic extremists, but this is Pakistan's war, and Pakistanis will fight it.

NATO needs to get its own house in order in Afghanistan, instead of carrying out raids in Pakistani territory. Cut back on the 300 million dollars in drugs money funding the Taliban for starts, and lay of some of your 'exemplary patience' with the GoA that supports and runs many of these drug operations.

Use of special forces in this and other following incidents marks a return to 2001 tactics to persue enemy combatants into the heart of their base of operations. There are many political senstivities in Pakistan that stress their objections, that is clear, and this could lead to added instability to an already weakened and reeling political establishment - which itself finds itself the complete target of the very same forces that NATO is persuing.

A defacto situation of no go areas where enemy combatants can launch from, draw their breath, prepare for their operations, and then retreat without them being engaged will cease to exist wheter by joint initiatives or by increased use of penetrative covert counter insurgency. It is noted that while there are those like yourself who repeat that this is "Pakistans War so Pakistan will fight it". That in itself and the subsequent 'outcry' shows all what you are willing to do, and not do to fight that War. There are those in Pakistans leadership who also insist on treating the Taliban militancy as a form of strategic depth for Pakistan itself. Pakistans abilities have been and are continuing to be limited in that respect.

We shall therefore see what Pakistan will do to fight it's War, and what in addition NATO will do. And as you state it the intention is to put houses in order.

 

[RabzonKhan]

In recent weeks Pakistan has killed more terrorists than NATO, even our tribesmen have now joined the government in fighting AQ and Taliban terrorists.

But this kind of unilateral action in which innocent Pakistani women and children are killed will not help our cause, it only helps our enemies. We are in this war together we must help not undermine each other.

US and NATO’s policies in the region are dangerous and counter-productive. They should think what will happen if Pakistan turns into Afghanistan!

 

[Kharian_Beast]

provided if the future skilled leadership dosnt sit outside the country and come back to motherland

It all depends on intentions and circumstances, sometimes the Pakistani "diaspora" is a product of disasters in governance. I only judge a man by his actions and stance on issues important to our country.

 

[Kharian_Beast]

It all depends on intentions and circumstances, sometimes the Pakistani "diaspora" is a product of disasters in governance. I only judge a man by his actions and stance on issues important to our country.

Of course I'm not discounting the importance of Pakistani's who have always lived there. One and the same people still.

 

[muse]

Task Force

There are those in Pakistans leadership who also insist on treating the Taliban militancy as a form of strategic depth for Pakistan itself. Pakistans abilities have been and are continuing to be limited in that respect

I was willing to give you the benefit of the doubt - the statement above suggests that you come from a point of view that has no credibility - you don't even seek discovery or rmeaning in events and therefore cannot further the conversation. Ya blew it!

 

[Task Force Black]

In recent weeks Pakistan has killed more terrorists than NATO, even our tribesmen have now joined the government in fighting AQ and Taliban terrorists.

But this kind of unilateral action in which innocent Pakistani women and children are killed will not help our cause, it only helps our enemies. We are in this war together we must help not undermine each other.

US and NATO’s policies in the region are dangerous and counter-productive. They should think what will happen if Pakistan turns into Afghanistan!

The situation, and the responses in the political elite, all media and public domain are being carefully measured and monitored at all levels. There are some in the chain of command who percieve the risks outweigh the gains at this juncture, so understand the frequency and need to employ these strikes is not taken without a great deal of deliberation. SEAL Team 6 conducted a similar action in 2006, and the channels which were used then to gain cooperative acknowledgement and authority were the same that was used here. Force projection over the border none the less remains a strictly curtailed event.

 

[Awaaz]

government of pakistan does not care about cross border raid as pushtoon blood is cheap and the people are expendable as long as the finances are being provided to the government.

 

[Kharian_Beast]

government of pakistan does not care about cross border raid as pushtoon blood is cheap and the people are expendable as long as the finances are being provided to the government.

This is not a widely held or official stance and such comments only add fuel to unnecessary fires.