The border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan is heating up. I have a slew of interesting articles on activities there as a continuation of my recent posts on the area (see here, here and here) which I will get to in a moment, but one article truly struck me and it was from Reuters:

Former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld may not have been shy about projecting U.S. military power, but even he didn’t dare send American troops into Pakistan’s tribal lands to snatch or kill al Qaeda leaders.

But now Pakistanis fear the U.S. presidential campaign has heated up the foreign policy debate over how to handle the Taliban and al Qaeda threat to a point where American leaders could throw caution to the wind by taking unilateral action.

“If this was a possibility in the past, it’s a high possibility now,” said a senior security official in the northwestern city of Peshawar, shuddering at the statements coming from the United States.

Well, we all know that the Waffler-in-Chief (Obama) at one time was a very big proponent of invading Pakistan to get Bin Laden:

As President, I would make the hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. military aid to Pakistan conditional, and I would make our conditions clear: Pakistan must make substantial progress in closing down the training camps, evicting foreign fighters, and preventing the Taliban from using Pakistan as a staging area for attacks in Afghanistan.

I understand that President Musharraf has his own challenges. But let me make this clear. There are terrorists holed up in those mountains who murdered 3,000 Americans. They are plotting to strike again. It was a terrible mistake to fail to act when we had a chance to take out an al Qaeda leadership meeting in 2005. If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won’t act, we will.

Obama made this statement in August 2007. God only knows where the master flip-flopper is today. I assume he is still hell-bent on invading our nuclear-armed, democratic ally Pakistan, as he is still hell-bent on turning tail and running from our democratic ally Iraq. But what Reuters is saying, by comparison, is that Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld’s strategy with Pakistan was saner and smarter than someone like Obama who is acting like a loose cannon, ignoring the potential results and the concerns coming from the military, the diplomats, the press and others. Reuters just made the case Obama’s plans are scarier than Rumsfeld’s actions ever were.

 

 

OK, now onto the other interesting stories from this region (in no particular order). There are indications Pakistani forces are escalating their efforts against militants in the Kurram Agency:

Helicopter gunships attacked on Friday afternoon a number of militant hideouts in Shamsud Din Banda and Ghlu Chinna areas, near the Kurram Agency, inflicting heavy casualties.

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Officials claimed that the militants had retreated to the tribal areas of Sadda and Orakzai Agency after suffering heavy losses and that security forces had advanced further towards the inaccessible areas from all sides.

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Military officials claimed to have secured 90 per cent of the troubled region and achieve the main objectives of the operation. “Now the army or the Frontier Constabulary will set up permanent checkposts in Doaba, Zargari and Naryab to stop the militants from coming back,” they said.

More here. There are also signs of ever expanding in-fighting between militant tribes on the Mohmand Agency:

At least 15 people, including a militant leader, have been killed by the local Taliban in clashes with another rebel group in Pakistan’s restive Mohmand tribal region.
Shah Khalid, the chief of a militant outfit known as the ‘Shah group’, and his deputy Qari Abdullah were among the 15 people killed in the fighting, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan spokesman Doctor Asad told reporters today.

However, state-run PTV reported that Khalid was killed after he had surrendered to Pakistani Taliban militants owing allegiance to commander Baitullah Mehsud.

Much more here, with the additional news that our enemy’s focus has now moved from their defeat in Iraq to their survival in Pakistan’s tribal region:

The violence came as General David Petraeus, the senior US commander in Iraq, claimed that al-Qaeda may be diverting some of its fighters to the region from Iraq.

“There are unsubstantiated rumours and reflections that perhaps some foreign fighters originally intended for Iraq may have gone to the FATA,” he said, referring to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan.

Pakistan recently said it was working to tackle al-Qaeda and the Taliban in the region bordering Afghanistan and would not allow foreign forces across its borders to carry out operations.

More here on the movement of fighters to the region. If al-Qaeda and the extremists elements of the Taliban are defeated in the Pakistan tribal areas the movement will be seen as a complete and utter failure. Which is why action now could inflict a death blow to the Islamo Fascists.

The Taliban and al-Qaeda see the potential for their utter destruction, and have decided they need to act now, though acting now would simply demonstrate how the dangers from 9-11 have not been completely eradicated, destroying their hope the can get a liberal Surrendercrat into the White House:

The Taliban in Pakistan are gearing up for attacks across the country in the wake of an army operation against militants in the North West Frontier Province that has resulted in the killing of 15 rebels.

Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan chief Baitullah Mehsud held a meeting at an undisclosed location in the North Waziristan tribal region a few days ago to discuss ways to “occupy territories” in the NWFP and carry out terrorist activities across Pakistan.

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Maulana Fazlullah, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban in the Swat valley of NWFP and a deputy of Baitullah Mehsud, also held a meeting on Saturday with 50 militant commanders in Matta sub-district and discussed a “war strategy” to confront the government, media reports said.

The Taliban control areas inside of the FATA region (see map above), but have never been able to expand their control into the NWFP. Each time they have tried they have been repulsed and a backlash has risen amongst the locals. An attack now inside Pakistan would free the hand of the Pak government to drop the useless peace talks and get back to serious military operations. With US and NATO forces massing on the border this may all be a foregone conclusion.

More here on the stand off in the NWFP.

Tags: Afghanistan, al-Qaeda, Baitullah Mehsood, NATO, Pakistan, Taliban