Jul 08 2007
Pakistan Preparing To Roll Up Taliban
I have been posting for a while on how Pakistan is preparing to go on the offensive against the Taliban and al-Qaeda in country and spreading unrest. Well Captain Ed Morrissey has noticed some great news on that front with the capture of two of Mullah Omar’s top men in Pakistan:
Several key aides to the leader of Afghanistan’s Taleban rebels, Mullah Omar, are reported to have been arrested in Pakistan.
An Afghan intelligence source told the BBC four senior associates of Mullah Omar were being held after operations by Pakistani security forces.
The arrests took place in two areas of the city of Quetta in western Pakistan.
The source said those arrested included two men responsible for Mullah Omar’s letters and communications.
If these men are the communications conduits to Omar then the Pak forces are very close indeed to taking out the last remaining major leader of the Taliban. The number two and three men in the Taliban were killed over the last year. That leaves Omar, who provided al-Qaeda the cover to plan and execute 9-11 and sanctuary after 9-11. Musharraf knows there is very little time before Bush steps down and America’s will to win (let alone survive) will be tested. So moving now on the Taliban is better than waiting until they Taliban are strong and America is distracted.
All anyone can hope is Rudy Guiliani is our next President. He seems to have a backbone of steel, like Bush, with the will to face down the left and right to keep us on a straight course ahead. The rest of the pack (left and right) seem to be mostly pander-bears saying all the right things people want to hear. Instead of what they NEED to hear. Guiliani is the only one I see not following polls and public opinion and litmus tests from his ‘base’. And that is what this country needs. An American leader – not a party leader. And that is what we need to make sure the Taliban and al-Qaeda keep losing this world war as they have been doing since 9-11.
One of the latest positions from inside the Red Mosque is that they are saying they will leave if not arrested and allowed to go home has been floated.
I thought that was what Musharaff was offering days ago and they flat refused. In fact he was offering money to finance their trip home.
Sure, these guys could be “conduits to Omar.” They could just as easily be two worthless mules with a lot of PR cooked up around them to make the stupid Americans think the Pakistani govm’t is doing something useful while in fact it’s business as usual.
Note the story the last couple of days about the aborted 2005 raid on Zwahiri and Al Qaeda – the unspoken but obvious question is “why not just tell Musharef where they are and let the Pakistani govm’t take care of them?” The unspoken but obvious answer was that the Paki govm’t already knew exactly where they were and intended to absolutely nothing. A logical reason for cancelling the planned raid is that it would have brought us into conflict with pakistani government units serving as their protectors and minders, and that would be just a little too ugly to bury. Note that recently we have been threatening to cut off support for Musharref completely; don’t you think that we have proof that his forces have been heavily involved with the Taliban? These latest noises are supposed to be “proof” that he really has reformed his ways.
As far as the Red Mosque situation – well that’s the danger with getting too close to the crazies, they’re crazy and they do crazy things. The Pakistani’s are paying the price for nurturing these guys for over 20 years now – talk about blowback!
So all this about Pakistan rolling up the Taliban – show me Mullah Omar’s head on a pike, and Zwahiri’s right next to it. I’ll believe it when I see it, but not before.