Then you would know that taking on the Pakistani army on their own turf would be nothing like taking on Iraq or Panama or Somalia. And invasion like this would number the casualties in the tens of thousands.
Agreed, but what would a nuke in the hands of al-Qaeda result in? I’m not advocating it, I’m asking the question. We could act covertly or we can act overtly, whichever works. Plus, I don’t want to send our guys in unless we have no other recourse.
And invasion like this would number the casualties in the tens of thousands.
And what would be the casuality numbers with a nuclear armed Taliban?
Doubt we would get those casualties in tens of thousands unless we stayed. The Paki Army simply isnt mobile enough, or logistically proficient enough, to truly fight the USA force-on-force. We could seize, hold, and take any nuke storage area over there when we want. Cut off the Paki Army from reinforcing that zone with our air power. Destroy their AF on the ground, then extract, bringing their Nukes with us.
Iraq had one of the biggest armies in the world when we creamed them back in the 90’s.
Pakistan has six times the population of Iraq, has rugged terrain with lots of places to hide, has lots of gun-owning citizens, and lots of people who make firearms in their garages.
Pakistan can be sterilized with enough WMDs, but not occupied.