Hot Pursuit Into Pakistan?

IBD Editorials ^ | July 11, 2008

[Kaslin]

War On Terror: As Washington moves an aircraft carrier off Pakistan's coast, U.S. commandos are reportedly poised to launch raids against terror targets inside Pakistan. It's about time.

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It appears hawks within the Pentagon and CIA have won a long-running policy battle with risk-averse officials in the administration and diplomats at the State Department. The result is a more aggressive, go-it-alone policy in response to Pakistan's failure to disrupt terrorist training camps and cross-border attacks against our troops and the Afghan government.

Politics and diplomacy had not produced the desired results, and they've had ample opportunity to work. For nearly seven years now — as we've coaxed, cajoled and even bribed our "ally" with billions in aid — Osama bin Laden and his henchmen have remained hidden inside Pakistan's tribal areas. Patience with Islamabad has run out. It's time for unilateral military action.

The U.S. military confirms it is sending extra air power to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border by moving the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln from the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman. The battle group ostensibly will provide air support for special forces who reportedly have been given the green light — after tumultuous debate within the White House — to conduct raids deep inside Pakistan's tribal belt to eradicate al-Qaida and Taliban bases.

According to a Houston Chronicle report, quoting both Democrat and Republican lawmakers who recently received a briefing from U.S. commanders in the region, the White House has authorized a secret plan to deploy commandos into Pakistan's tribal areas.

[Lancey Howard]

It's about time.

Yep.

Back in the early 1970s I had a talk with my Dad about the Vietnam war and the United States' military being prohibited by law from crossing into Laos and Cambodia (including sections of the Ho Chi Min trail) to engage the enemy. The US finally did mount a bombing offensive on those areas and that, of course, prompted zillions of partying college hippies to "protest".

When I asked Dad what he thought he gave me this example: He pointed next door and asked, "What if that neighbor kept coming into our yard and throwing stones at our house, and whenever we came out to get him he simply jumped back into his own yard and laughed at us? And suppose we were prohibited by law from going into his yard to get him, and there was nothing we could do? That would be pretty stupid, right?"

Of course it was stupid.

This Pakistan situation is "deja vu all over again".

We need to go into Pakistan and step on the cockroaches NOW, relentlessly and mercilessly.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Shutting down here too....Note all!

[gonzo]

Maybe now ..................... FRegards

[potlatch]

POTLATCH

[mad_as_he$$]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studies_and_Observations_Groupp

De Oppresso Libre

[DJ Taylor]

Nothing there, try this one:

http://www.projectdelta.net/

[mad_as_he$$]

Interesting I checked it before I posted. Must be some wiki glitch. Anyway. The original point was we didn't fight in Laos or Cambodia. Pretty sure there was from very close-up experience.

[Marine_Uncle]

Something not so readily apparent from a cursory read is that that CENTCOM must feel we have the Persian Gulf adequately covered at present regarding the imagined or real threat levels the Persians pose in disrupting the flow of oil/gas/gasoline/petrochemical derivatives in the Persian Gulf.
As for moving CVN72 Carrier Strike Group into Paki waters, for the stated purposes, it sure looks like the days of reckoning have started for the Pakistani government. Their gross inactions for so long now will come back to bite them.