I noted a while back that I felt Musharraf would make a final push to purge his country of the terrorists, and he might even invoke the help of the US. The stories, like this one, keep coming out of Pakistan concerning the push to cleanse the lawless lands of Pakistan of Islamic extremists. But what is truly interesting are the occasionally stories that hint at a larger US presence in the battles in Pakistan:

The US is seeking to beef up Pakistan’s counter-insurgency efforts in the tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan by expanding an American special forces team in the country to train the Frontier Corps and recruiting local militias to take on the insurgents.
The aim is to replicate the Iraq model, in which the Americans recruited, financed and armed local militias against insurgents, firstly in Anbar province and then elsewhere in the country.

US special forces at present only go to Pakistan for six-week trips. The intention is that from early next year they will be there for longer assignments, mainly in a training and advisory role, though combat is not ruled out.

There is more here at the NY Tmes (of all places)

A senior Defense Department official said that Admiral Olson had prepared a memorandum on how Special Operations forces could assist the Pakistani military in the counterinsurgency, and shared that document with several senior Pentagon officials.

Four senior defense or counterterrorism officials confirmed that planning was under way at the command headquarters.

One person who was briefed on the proposal prepared by the Special Operations Command staff members, and who spoke on condition of anonymity because the briefing had not yet been approved, said it was in the form of about two dozen slides. The slides described a strategy using both military and nonmilitary measures to fight the militants.

One slide included a chart that categorized one to two dozen tribes by location — North Waziristan and South Waziristan, for example — and then gave a brief description of their location, their known or suspected links to Al Qaeda and the Taliban, and their size and military abilities.

The briefing said United States forces would not be involved in any conventional combat in Pakistan. But several senior military and Pentagon officials said elements of the Joint Special Operations Command, an elite counterterrorism unit, might be involved in strikes against senior militant leaders under specific conditions.

Leave it to the NY Times to leak critical tactical plans and give al-Qaeda a heads up we might be coming. So with the news now out I can note that there is a clear intelligence effort to note which areas are housing foreign fighters. And note the one key critical caveat to the ban: “Pentagon officials said elements of the Joint Special Operations Command, an elite counterterrorism unit, might be involved in strikes against senior militant leaders under specific conditions.”. They are a hunting Bin Laden, Zawahiri and Mullah Omar my friends. That one exception to US actions is an enormous one.

The Pakistan Army has about 100,000 troops circling the lawless Northern Territories, while US and NATO forces are lined up along the Afghan border to make sure no one escapes northward. It would seem the noose is in place, as well as the permission to act if the opportunities arise.

For Bush and Musharraf time is running out. So that means the clock is ticking as well for the remaining al-Qaeda and Taliban leadership that are probably hiding out in Pakistan’s lawless regions along the Afghan border. Musharraf is finally going to go all in and take on the massing terrorists. And then he will hand over power to the newly elected leadership and he and Bush can retire knowing they did all they could to end this decades long war against Islamo Fascism.

One side note: Seems the NY Times will run an article on 11/20 (today) by Michael O’Hanlon and Frederick Kagan calling on the US to invade Pakistan and take control of their nukes. This seems like a reckless and dumb idea to me. We don’t need to start a fight with out allies, we need to crush al-Qaeda.