Posted on 02/01/2008 3:00:59 PM PST by tobyhill
WASHINGTON, Feb 1 (Reuters) - The U.S. success in killing a top al Qaeda operative this week showed that cooperation with Pakistan can be fruitful but security analysts said there were limits to what the present strategy can achieve.
Analysts said the unmanned Predator air strike that apparently killed Abu Laith al-Libi in a remote area of Pakistan demonstrated that the United States has the military reach and intelligence sources to carry out a precision attack on a specific target with Pakistani consent.
But U.S. participation in a ground offensive against al Qaeda strongholds along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border is unlikely. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has publicly opposed it and the Pakistani military may not be able to mount effective operations deep in tribal frontier regions.
"The arrangement that appears to have been reached between the United States and Pakistan is that it's OK to cooperate on targeted strikes against al Qaeda leaders," said Seth Jones, a RAND Corp terrorism analyst who recently returned from the border region.
"But it's not OK at the moment for U.S. forces to try to clear and hold territory that is controlled by al Qaeda or al Qaeda related groups in Pakistan," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
By the way, is Obammy still planning on invading Pakistan if he is elected?
If the tribal allies are found with a Republican in office then to the MSM it would be a bad thing. If allied with a Rat in office there can be no wrong to the MSM.
What? It seems like you are questioning Reuters motives or something. The very thought!!
Not me! Reuters is the fairest of them all. /s
Reuters must have choked plenty printing this story.
Repeated calls to Abu Laith al-Libi by Reuters were unreturned by press time.
***there were limits to what the present strategy can achieve***
Of course any strategy is limited short of nuking the entire tribal region. We are going to have to pick them off one by one with the way the politics in Washington is played and anything more than that would have to be approved by Code Pink.
They’re on the line with Bin Laden right now trying to get his take on the strike. I’m sure Bin Laden will inform them that it was a wedding in progress.
memo to the antiAmerican media: you're getting a bit predictable. you're game is up. you're throwing money down the hole. the human quest for liberty will never end. ever; it's in the dna.
wait! wow. wonder if some mad scientist will try to create a genetically engineered race of useful idiots...what a plot!
Other than pissing off the Sierra Club, I don't see the down side.
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