I would have just put a link here but I don't know how,sorry. I think that it'll be right around six months, by then the Taliban will be running Pakistan for the most part and getting tooclose to getting their hands on the nukes. We'll go in, or India will, probably us, to keep India from nuking them. The Hindus lost over 80 million people to the Muslims,slaughtered,so they have been itching for payback for a long time. I'd rather see India deal with it, so we don't get bogged down trying to make a democracy in yet another place where the guy with the most guns always rules. IMO, the Government of Pakistan is barely in control.
March 19 (Bloomberg) -- Pakistan’s government urged the Obama administration to reconsider a plan to expand strikes by drones in the tribal regions to include targets in the southwestern province of Baluchistan.
“From the very first day, the government has been condemning drone attacks,” Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira said in the capital, Islamabad, yesterday, state media reported. Pakistan is “hoping the U.S. administration would review its decision to expand such attacks in Baluchistan.”
The Obama administration recently received two reports on Pakistan and Afghanistan that called for a broadening of targets to include a militant sanctuary in and around Baluchistan’s capital, Quetta, the New York Times reported this week.
Thousands of Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters sought shelter in Pakistan’s tribal region after the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001. Mullah Mohammad Omar, who led the Taliban government in Afghanistan, has operated with near impunity in Baluchistan, which is under central government control and abuts parts of southern Afghanistan, the Times said.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates, asked about the report at a Defense Department briefing in Washington yesterday, said the U.S. is concerned about the security around Quetta and the presence of Taliban militants in the area.
“But I think this is principally a problem and a challenge for the Pakistanis to take on,” he said, according to a Defense Department transcript. “We are prepared to do anything we can to -- to help them do that.”
Military Action
Pakistan’s government says it is pursuing a program of selective military action against militants while it woos tribal leaders to encourage them to expel foreign fighters.
Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked insurgents have made inroads in Pakistan in recent months, forcing authorities to sign a truce and agree to Islamic law in the Swat Valley, a former tourist destination northwest of Islamabad.
Some Obama administration officials are concerned extending strikes by Central Intelligence Agency-operated drones may worsen tensions with Pakistan, the newspaper said. Past attacks have triggered anti-U.S. protests in the tribal region and cities after civilians were killed.
President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani have repeatedly protested the strikes, Kaira said, according to the official Associated Press of Pakistan. They say the raids violate Pakistan’s sovereignty and weaken the government’s ability to effectively combat terrorism.
Drone strikes in tribal areas have been effective at killing nine of al-Qaeda’s top 20 leaders, the New York Times cited administration officials as saying. The aerial campaign was recently expanded to focus on the Pakistani Taliban leader, Baitullah Mehsud, as well as his fighters and camps, it said.
While American intelligence officials say many top Taliban commanders remain in hiding in and around Quetta, some Afghan officials say that other senior Taliban leaders have fled to the Pakistani port city of Karachi, according to the report.
Strikes on Quetta or Afghan settlements and refugee camps around the city and near the border with Afghanistan would carry high risks of civilian causalities, the newspaper cited officials as saying.
March 19 (Bloomberg) -- Pakistan’s government urged the Obama administration to reconsider a plan to expand strikes by drones in the tribal regions to include targets in the southwestern province of Baluchistan.
“From the very first day, the government has been condemning drone attacks,” Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira said in the capital, Islamabad, yesterday, state media reported. Pakistan is “hoping the U.S. administration would review its decision to expand such attacks in Baluchistan.”
The Obama administration recently received two reports on Pakistan and Afghanistan that called for a broadening of targets to include a militant sanctuary in and around Baluchistan’s capital, Quetta, the New York Times reported this week.
Thousands of Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters sought shelter in Pakistan’s tribal region after the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001. Mullah Mohammad Omar, who led the Taliban government in Afghanistan, has operated with near impunity in Baluchistan, which is under central government control and abuts parts of southern Afghanistan, the Times said.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates, asked about the report at a Defense Department briefing in Washington yesterday, said the U.S. is concerned about the security around Quetta and the presence of Taliban militants in the area.
“But I think this is principally a problem and a challenge for the Pakistanis to take on,” he said, according to a Defense Department transcript. “We are prepared to do anything we can to -- to help them do that.”
Military Action
Pakistan’s government says it is pursuing a program of selective military action against militants while it woos tribal leaders to encourage them to expel foreign fighters.
Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked insurgents have made inroads in Pakistan in recent months, forcing authorities to sign a truce and agree to Islamic law in the Swat Valley, a former tourist destination northwest of Islamabad.
Some Obama administration officials are concerned extending strikes by Central Intelligence Agency-operated drones may worsen tensions with Pakistan, the newspaper said. Past attacks have triggered anti-U.S. protests in the tribal region and cities after civilians were killed.
President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani have repeatedly protested the strikes, Kaira said, according to the official Associated Press of Pakistan. They say the raids violate Pakistan’s sovereignty and weaken the government’s ability to effectively combat terrorism.
Drone strikes in tribal areas have been effective at killing nine of al-Qaeda’s top 20 leaders, the New York Times cited administration officials as saying. The aerial campaign was recently expanded to focus on the Pakistani Taliban leader, Baitullah Mehsud, as well as his fighters and camps, it said.
While American intelligence officials say many top Taliban commanders remain in hiding in and around Quetta, some Afghan officials say that other senior Taliban leaders have fled to the Pakistani port city of Karachi, according to the report.
Strikes on Quetta or Afghan settlements and refugee camps around the city and near the border with Afghanistan would carry high risks of civilian causalities, the newspaper cited officials as saying.