US Troops Heading to Pakistan .. America Headed to Disaster

[blackascoal]

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."

If Pakistan actually follows through, perhaps 2008 will be a better year.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/early...l?nav=rss_blog

The blunder of Iraq will look like that cakewalk if the US is really stupid enough to send troops into Pakistan.

[evince]

Is there no end to the price the US will have to pay for allowing Bush to steal back to back elections?

[Battleborne]

they should never have left in the first place...Pakistan has now realized their blunder of asking the US to pull out and let them handle the alQaeda problem...now Usama is in the cross-hairs where he should never have been allowed to hide from...all will be well once this group of morons are removed from the area...is this not what liberals such as yourself have been screaming about...saying we should have fought the war in Afghanistan and the border area of Pakistan...not Iraq...now you are doing the same crying about this issue...go figure!

[Socrtease]

they should never have left in the first place...Pakistan has now realized their blunder of asking the US to pull out and let them handle the alQaeda problem...now Usama is in the cross-hairs where he should never have been allowed to hide from...all will be well once this group of morons are removed from the area...is this not what liberals such as yourself have been screaming about...saying we should have fought the war in Afghanistan and the border area of Pakistan...not Iraq...now you are doing the same crying about this issue...go figure!

QFT. This is where the war should have been fought from the beginning. SF and other Special Ops troops will be able to transform indigenous groups that are just as oppressed by the taliban and Al Qaeda into smooth functioning anti terrorist forces. But JUST IMAGINE if Bush had spent the time effort and money from the outset in this part of the world rather than his folly in Iraq.

[Battleborne]

QFT. This is where the war should have been fought from the beginning. SF and other Special Ops troops will be able to transform indigenous groups that are just as oppressed by the taliban and Al Qaeda into smooth functioning anti terrorist forces. But JUST IMAGINE if Bush had spent the time effort and money from the outset in this part of the world rather than his folly in Iraq.

however if the Pakistani government had allowed the US to pursue Usama in the mountain regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan maybe Iraq would never have been a issue! We most likely would not have set up camp in Iraq as the Usama problem would have been taken care of!...Just food for thought!

[Epicurus]

SUPPORT THE PRESIDENT!

[Socrtease]

however if the Pakistani government had allowed the US to pursue Usama in the mountain regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan maybe Iraq would never have been a issue! We most likely would not have set up camp in Iraq as the Usama problem would have been taken care of!...Just food for thought!

I agree we could have gotten better cooperation from the Pakistanis, but we could have set up shop in Afghanistan and fought from there while thoroughly routing the talban so that they were not back in power all over Afghanistan. Instead our president took what he thought was the easy way out and did nothing to combat the people responsible for 9-11.

[Damocles]

SUPPORT THE PRESIDENT!

Pray for him.... I saw Ted Haggard expressing just that on Jesus Camp just yesterday.