U.S. Troops to Head to Pakistan

[tekisui]

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.

more at link: http://blog.washingtonpost.com/earlywarning/2007/12/musharrafs_woes_have_opened_a.html?nav=rss_blog

[shadowknows69]

1. How to really piss off a country that already hates us

By George Bush.

[tekisui]

3. Pakistan is not a good place for any US soldier.

[bdamomma]

14. * loves death, destruction and chaos

and war. What a despicable man.

[gateley]

2. I'm waiting

to hear Biden's take on this. He understands the situation and people far better than this administration does. We'll get a TRUE picture of what's going on.

[bdamomma]

15. me too, I wonder if he will call Musharraf.

[EFerrari]

4. This article is so bizarre. The Pakistani military has no desire

to control the tribal areas. They could if they wanted to and they clearly don't want to because it would rob them of their "we have no control" cover.

And, the Pentagon knows that. It knows that because we used those same tribal and border areas to funnel arms and money into Afghanistan.

What a crock!

Plus, the Pentagon knows al Qaida is building a world class school in the tribal area just as they know that Omar has been sitting in Quetts for years now.

We're sending our troops into another theater that is a no winner because the mission they are being given isn't one the real powers that be want to win. :grr:

[tekisui]

8. Just a continuation of the current criminal-administration's

Endless-Global-War-For-Profit.

By design, none of these action's are meant to bring stability. Only more disaster, at the benefit of large corporations.

[EFerrari]

12. Bingo. It's theater with real deaths and injuries. n/t

[underpants]

5. 5 years too late

PAkistan should have been our first action post 9/11.

[Didereaux]

6. Absolutely!

[scarletwoman]

7. I'm sure this will turn out well.

:eyes:

[underpants]

10. What could possibly go wrong????

Unfortunately, like Iraq, we may be about to find out and, like Iraq, they may have come up with ways to go wrong that no one else ever imagined, like Iraq.

[Jackpine Radical]

16. As in "Well, I think WW III just started?" (nt)

[Didereaux]

9. SpecWarfareOps has been in there off and on for 3+yrs...Mass troop movement will be a mess because..

we no longer have sufficient troops to do the job: Just enough to get there asses killed so that Cheney can declare in an election year that we are serious about getting Osama bin Who.

[lpbk2713]

11. Smirky is hell bent on starting WWW III.

Rethuglicans have always thought war is good business .... as long as someone else's kids have to fight it.

[JVS]

13. kick, in light of more recent events

[tekisui]

17. bump.