[excon]

Hello:

We ARE going after the bad guys INSIDE Pakistan. The Pakistani military, who may BE the bad guys, are shooting at us. When they hit us, what are we going to do? They HAVE nukes, you know.

Why didn't we go in there when it was run by our ally?

excon

[StaticFX]

We did, looking for bin laden. But, then decided for some stupid reason that Iraq was the bad guy... stupid.

They do have nukes, BUT, they have no long range nukes (nothing that could make it to us here in the states) they would have to shoot them into their own country... which they won't do because that would just destroy themselves.

[tomder55]

The PAkis are also engaged with the enemy and killed 60 of them in raids yesterday .
The Associated Press: Pakistan says 60 suspected militants killed

The way I see it;if our allies are doing their part denying safe haven to terrorists then we have no need for incursions. The Pakis have a choice ;side with us ,or those who would blow up their Marriott Hotel . President Bush and Asif Zardari are to meet today at the UN to hash out the details.

[inthebox]

I agree EX - scary thought.


Obama Says He Would Take Fight To Pakistan - washingtonpost.com

[tomder55]

I want to get back to a point of debate from this posting :
https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/curren...ar-257245.html

Excon said

We're losing in Afghanistan. THAT is the war on terror. THAT is the war that counts. If you don't win there, you don't win ANYWHERE!

And I countered

I disagree about the great strategic importance of Afghanistan.

The Afghani government ;unlike the Iraqi ,has not for the most part stepped up to the plate. So why should we be truly committed to them ? We can hunt AQ and let them secure the country themselves if they are unwilling to get with the program.I'm in favor of letting predator drones do the hunting of AQ and the Taliban leaders and keep all the soldiers out of harms way .

A foreign policy debate is coming up Friday. I would love to hear the question asked; WHAT IS OUR REAL LONG TERM STRATEGIC INTEREST IN AFGHANISTAN ?
The answer is that we do not want another jihadi terrorist organization with a long reach setting up shop there .
Between us and NATO we have apx 50,000 troops there. The Ruskies could not control the country with more than double that and at the time a common border for logistics.

In the posting above I called Afghanistan a "quagmire " half tongue in cheek. However I see nothing but a holding action in support of the Karzai government for a long time to come.

The N. Vietnamese had the Ho Chi Minh Trail for resupply and safe haven. Politics in America opposed the expansion of that conflict into neighboring countries . I suspect that Obama's supporters are little different from the war opponents of the 1960s-1970s.
Will Obama truly commit to expanding the war into Pakistan? I doubt it.

The best chance is to convince the new Pakistan government to take the war to the AQ remnants and to split the Taliban from the AQ remnants . I do not think that Pakistan will wage war on the Taliban .But AQ just shot themselves in the foot with the hotel bombing .
In Iraq Gen. Petraeus was able to split the Sunni tribes from AQ. I think that will be his game plan this time.

After that ,if the Karzai government cannot build a coalition of tribes to counter the Taliban then I don't think there is much we can do about it.