Drone to be struck down on orders: Air Chief

[The Northerner]

ISLAMABAD: Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Rao Qamar Suleman on Friday said that drones entering Pakistani air space would be struck down if such orders were issued (to the Pakistan Air Force), Geo News reported.

The Air Chief said this in reply to a question during the in-camera briefing by the military officials to the joint session of the parliament in the backdrop of the US unilateral assault in Abbottabad on May 2, 2011 that eliminated Osama bin Laden.

To another question regarding the operational control of Shamsi Air Base, the officials said UAE was operating the Air Base.

Source: http://www.thenews.com.pk/NewsDetail.aspx?ID=15508

[n2doc]

1. They aren't doing squat

The billions of dollars a year we give them insures that. They also don't have an AIPAC equivalent to keep the US in line when they want to do things we don't like.

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. I was thinking that I will rely on what they DO, not what they say.

[GeorgeGist]

3. IF

[Uzybone]

4. yawn

They are playing a double game and playing it poorly. They are probably the ones feeding us the coordinates.

[pinboy3niner]

5. Absolutely inconsequential nt

[JackRiddler]

6. The USG drones almost certainly do not enter Pakistani air space...

The USG drones almost certainly take off from and land at bases inside Pakistan. They are part a joint war of USG and the Pakistani military against the part of Afghanistan that happens to be on the Pakistani side of the border (thanks to the Durand line, the border forced by the British in the 1880s after the UK-Afghan wars). For political reasons, the Pakistani government pretends they do not authorize the USG attacks.

[stevenleser]

11. People should read and reread your comment because it is spot on. The govt of Pakistan is completely

on board with what the US is doing there. They just have to pretend they arent.

Wikileaks showed that Pakistan is helping to direct targets for the drones. Satellite photos of Pakistani airbases show the drones on the tarmac, etc.

[JackRiddler]

13. Thank you. I think it follows that they were on board with the OBL action...

and all the accusations back and forth about it, that the ISI knew where he was (duh) or that the USG violated Pakistani sovereignty, is kabuki. The hiding of OBL until May 1st was almost certainly a CIA-ISI collaboration.

[bluestate10]

7. Arm the drones with ATA missiles as well as their normal ATG missiles.

And if a Pakistani war plane comes within threatening distance, flame it.

[JackRiddler]

8. Would you like a war with the Pakistani military as well?

[bluestate10]

10. How does a drone shooting down a war plane becomes full fledged war?

Could. But most unlikely.

[JackRiddler]

14. Interesting phrasing there.

While it would be a "warplane," that's an interesting way to describe a country's own plane being shot down over its own territory.

Do you think US drones are sovereign in Pakistan?

[sabrina 1]

9. Yes, let's start another war, how many are we in already? And with

a nuclear armed country!

And there's always China, just waiting to take the place of the US in Pakistan.

Hopefully there are wiser heads making these decisions than the ones who marched this country into this mess to begin, and their supporters.

[pinboy3niner]

12. Whoa, it's only posturing

Pakistan is cooperating with U.S. drone strikes. What he says is meaningless--a military man saying he'll follow orders (orders that will never be given). It's just part of the show.