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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Friday, May 16, 2008

An absolute must read in the NYTimes.

The Pakistanis have quit our war.
Pakistani officials are making it increasingly clear that they have no interest in stopping cross-border attacks by militants into Afghanistan....

In an unusual step during a visit to Pakistan in March, Adm. Eric T. Olson, the commander of United States Special Operations Command, held a round-table discussion with a group of civilian Pakistani leaders to sound them out on the possibility of cross-border raids by American forces. He was told in no uncertain terms that from the Pakistani point of view it was a bad idea, said one of the participants......

It appears the latest Pakistani/tribal peace accord, including Taleban warlord Baitullah Mehsud, is going forward. Implied in this article is that the agreement includes a stop on terror attacks in Pakistan in exchange for safe haven and free flow across the Afghani border.
The pending peace accord with the militants shows where Pakistan and American interests diverge. The accord..... makes no mention of banning cross-border raids into Afghanistan.

The agreement with Mr. Mehsud.... has also alarmed Washington because it fails to call for the rapid expulsion of foreign fighters from Arab countries, Uzbekistan and Chechnya, which make up the backbone of Al Qaeda and its allies in the region.


And then there's this
Earlier this month, Afrasiab Khattak and Asfandyar Wali Khan, the leaders of the Awami National Party, which leads the government in the North-West Frontier Province, met with Stephen J. Hadley, the national security adviser, and Mr. Negroponte in Washington.

In their meetings, Mr. Khattak said, it was hard to deter the Americans from the notion of launching their own operations into Pakistan. The topic came up “again and again,” he said.

The Americans specifically mentioned their concern that Qaeda operatives in the tribal areas were preparing an attack on the United States, he said.
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3 Comments:

  • We've pledged to go after the terrorists wherever they are, including governments that allow them sanctuary. Arguably, this now includes Pakistan.

    Do we go after the militants inside the Pakistani border in defiance of the government, risking destabilizing Pakistan and possibily even widening the war there - a country with nuclear weapons?

    What a mess.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:33 AM  

  • I don't know. That's the great conundrum. We've wasted all those years focusing on Iraq and now the Afghanistan/Pakistan door is closing.

    The problem is that we've created a situation where Pakistan's interests have diverged from ours.

    (And, from what I've read, we don't really have to worry about the nuclear weapons. Pretty much, they're under civilian military control, and the radicals in Pakistan are far from taking over either institution. There's an outside possibility that some rogue agent might steal something, but frankly, it's pretty small.

    The politics of Pakistan are fervent, but not radical. The radicals represent a small and pretty disempowered portion of the whole. The reason they've been conducting violence against Pakistan is because they hold so little power.)

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 1:41 PM  

  • I find it amazing that no one's talking about this article, as I find it pretty significant.

    Aside from not aid the US, Pakstan is discouraging the US from conducting their own raids. It's hard to see how this won't lead to an even more capable al Qaeda stronghold in the FATA region.

    Unfortunately, our attention is elsewhere.

    By Blogger Tim, at 11:27 PM  

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