U.S. Troops to Head to Pakistan

[johnny861]

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/early...l?nav=rss_blog


U.S. Troops to Head to Pakistan
Beginning early next year, U.S. Special Forces are expected to vastly expand their presence in Pakistan, as part of an effort to train and support indigenous counter-insurgency forces and clandestine counterterrorism units, according to defense officials involved with the planning.

These Pakistan-centric operations will mark a shift for the U.S. military and for U.S. Pakistan relations. In the aftermath of Sept. 11, the U.S. used Pakistani bases to stage movements into Afghanistan. Yet once the U.S. deposed the Taliban government and established its main operating base at Bagram, north of Kabul, U.S. forces left Pakistan almost entirely. Since then, Pakistan has restricted U.S. involvement in cross-border military operations as well as paramilitary operations on its soil.

But the Pentagon has been frustrated by the inability of Pakistani national forces to control the borders or the frontier area. And Pakistan's political instability has heightened U.S. concern about Islamic extremists there.

According to Pentagon sources, reaching a different agreement with Pakistan became a priority for the new head of the U.S. Special Operations Command, Adm. Eric T. Olson. Olson visited Pakistan in August, November and again this month, meeting with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, Pakistani Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Chairman Gen. Tariq Majid and Lt. Gen. Muhammad Masood Aslam, commander of the military and paramilitary troops in northwest Pakistan. Olson also visited the headquarters of the Frontier Corps, a separate paramilitary force recruited from Pakistan's border tribes.

Now, a new agreement, reported when it was still being negotiated last month, has been finalized. And the first U.S. personnel could be on the ground in Pakistan by early in the new year, according to Pentagon sources.

U.S. Central Command Commander Adm. William Fallon alluded to the agreement and spoke approvingly of Pakistan's recent counterterrorism efforts in an interview with Voice of America last week.

"What we've seen in the last several months is more of a willingness to use their regular army units," along the Afghan border, Fallon said. "And this is where, I think, we can help a lot from the U.S. in providing the kind of training and assistance and mentoring based on our experience with insurgencies recently and with the terrorist problem in Iraq and Afghanistan, I think we share a lot with them, and we'll look forward to doing that."

[reason]

Originally Posted by johnny861

But the Pentagon has been frustrated by the inability of Pakistani national forces to control the borders or the frontier area. And Pakistan's political instability has heightened U.S. concern about Islamic extremists there.

hey... you guys aren't doing exactly what we want (told) you to do... so we are just gonna stop by and do it for you.

oh, and by the way... we are probably going to stay for a while to do some other stuff.... oh i dont know... like take control of your borders to serve our military import/export interests, and create a stroghold ... but don't worry - we will just make it look like we are "helping" you take care of insurgencies... this way, your country and our country will have a higher public opinion of our little stay.

[johnny861]

Originally Posted by reason

hey... you guys aren't doing exactly what we want (told) you to do... so we are just gonna stop by and do it for you.

it's more like they haven't been able to fullfill what they (agreed) to do...

At least this will make it more difficult for the insurgents to just hop across the Pakastani border and yell SAFE!

[J. Fees]

Originally Posted by johnny861

it's more like they haven't been able to fullfill what they (agreed) to do...

At least this will make it more difficult for the insurgents to just hop across the Pakastani border and yell SAFE!

but 1000s of troops will get killed, and crazy islam will have more reasons to commit terrrorist acts. its a pretty shitty trade off

[Taki]

Good, im glad were are expanding our Empire to Pakistan, now maybe we can finally get ahold of Bin Laden. Maybe.

[MC Twinkie]

History repeats itself. We trained osama to fight against russia in the cold war, or something like that. Either way, we trained that bastard. Now, we are going to train new people and supply the area with more guns. This is fucking rediculous.

We need to send a force to collect all the arms if we are seeking peace, not send more. This is so god damn backward.

[Sinner]

Originally Posted by clay donkey

History repeats itself. We trained osama to fight against russia in the cold war, or something like that. Either way, we trained that bastard. Now, we are going to train new people and supply the area with more guns. This is fucking rediculous.

We need to send a force to collect all the arms if we are seeking peace, not send more. This is so god damn backward.

So how would we collect those arms?

Ask for them nicely?

[johnny861]

Originally Posted by MicahB

So how would we collect those arms?

Ask for them nicely?

true, That didn't seem to work in Iraq... both collecting the arms by asking nicely for them or forcefully take them away... *shrugs*

[Dionysos]

This is about 5 years overdue.

[zymote]

The more I think about it, the more I suspect that OBL isn't in Pakistan. Sure, he's got supporters there, but with that many US troops in such close proximity, it seems like a bad move to stay there.

On the other hand, there aren't any US troops anywhere near the Sahara, and he's way friendly with the Sudanese government. He could hide out anywhere in the Sahara for years and never get caught - somewhere like the Aïr mountains in Niger, or the Tibesti mountains in Chad. They're totally desolate, and someone with enough money to fly in supplies could totally hole up there, as long as the Tuareg never found out.

That might be a little tinfoil, but it sounds plausible enough to me.

[Dionysos]

He burned up most of his good will with the African nations in the mid/late-90s. Besides, being that he's got no access to airplanes & he needs to be near a dialysis machine on a near-daily basis, chances aren't good that he can travel to another continent unnoticed. Not saying it's impossible, just highly unlikely.

[Delfonic]

Oh no.. Surprise, surprise.. Why does our government have to be all up on EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE!
-big brother

[jaesun]

Originally Posted by Delfonic

Oh no.. Surprise, surprise.. Why does our government have to be all up on EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE!
-big brother

Because if we don't intervene Pakistan will become a full on Islamic Terrorist state with Hezbollah and Al Qaeda at the reins...WITH NUKES. They may not be able to produce long range missiles or massive bombs with what security procedures Pakistan has and the way they store/keep their nukes (they keep them broken down into parts and it takes several cooperating high level officials to put them in that kind of working order), but they will then have the materials to create dirty-bombs and other nasty little tools to use to kill on a grand scale. Do not underestimate the power of the Islamic Extremist. They have a lot of political pull and power over there and they know what it takes and exactly how to accomplish their goals. This assassination is a prime example. If we don’t move now we will unquestionably regret it later.

[reason]

we don't have to invade or occupy.... we just go in to "help with the borders".

if we can control the import/export of people and goods, then we have all the control we need

[Adam D]

Originally Posted by jaesun

Because if we don't intervene Pakistan will become a full on Islamic Terrorist state with Hezbollah and Al Qaeda at the reins...WITH NUKES. They may not be able to produce long range missiles or massive bombs with what security procedures Pakistan has and the way they store/keep their nukes (they keep them broken down into parts and it takes several cooperating high level officials to put them in that kind of working order), but they will then have the materials to create dirty-bombs and other nasty little tools to use to kill on a grand scale. Do not underestimate the power of the Islamic Extremist. They have a lot of political pull and power over there and they know what it takes and exactly how to accomplish their goals. This assassination is a prime example. If we don’t move now we will unquestionably regret it later.

Thanks for the laugh.