Pakistani army: No new offensive for 6-12 months

The Pakistani army says it can't launch any new offensives against militants for six months to a year to give it time to stabilize existing gains.

Army spokesman Gen. Athar Abbas revealed the news to reporters traveling with visiting U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Thursday.

The U.S. has pressed Pakistan to target militants using its territory to launch cross-border attacks against coalition troops in Afghanistan.

But Abbas' comments make clear that Pakistan will remain focused in the short-term on operations targeting militants waging war against the state.

The Pakistani army launched a major ground offensive against the Pakistani Taliban's main stronghold in the South Waziristan tribal area in mid-October.

Well. At least the verdict is in. Pakistan has little interest in helping bring down their networks of terrorist. They are only interested in taking out those that would do immediate harm to parts of their country. But of course we shall continue sinking money into their coffers pretending they are our allies in this fight.

The PA has done a lot of hard fighting, 2 of their three N W divisions were committed to S Waziristan, suffered over 2,500 killed and wounded and are in winter garrison licking their wounds. The remaining division is in even tougher winter quarters in Swat.

They will be combat effective in a few months but are heavily tied down to holding down the territory they have taken.

The PA has several remaining divisions that are very tied up watching Balochistan, protecting Gwadar and the Sindh.

N Waziristan has always been the elephant in the living room that everyone pretends isn't there and just steps around. The PA/ISI has an incestuous relationship with the Haqqanis and Wazirs and are not ready or willing to take them on.

We cannot stabilize Afghanistan or stop AQ without destroying the Haqqani network and the Paki's can't/won't help us. We are at impasse and can only use UAV's for now.

BTW, the loss of our CIA personnel had an unintended benefit: the enemy knows who they are and, concerned about our retaliation, many of them ducked or went into hiding, that was noticed. That made it easier to sort out the goats from the sheep.

"We cannot stabilize Afghanistan or stop AQ without destroying the Haqqani network and the Paki's can't/won't help us. We are at impasse and can only use UAV's for now."
All you wrote I would give the thumbs up to. You state facts. My terse comment was basically grounded in the above statement you made which again I agree is factual.
I was aware of the limited forces they have at their disposal to ingress into the FATHA. And obviously with winter conditions setting in for the next few months they are further hampered. We shall see when spring sets in and warms the air what path they shall be willing to take.

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