Pakistan's security gains contrast Afghan turmoil

AP ^ | Sun Sep 20 , 2009 | ROBERT KENNEDY

[LeoWindhorse]

ISLAMABAD – A successful army offensive, a shift in public opinion against the militants and the killing of top Taliban leaders have given grounds for cautious optimism in Pakistan as progress across the border in Afghanistan appears stalled amid spiraling violence and post election turmoil.

The Obama administration has made it clear it sees victory in the fight against Islamist extremism as dependent on successes in both South Asian nations. Forging a common strategy for "AF-Pak," as the region is now dubbed in Washington, is a key priority.

[LeoWindhorse]

Let me guess : The problem on the Afghanistan side is that the U.S. has now flooded the AOR with JAG lawyers and screwed down the ROE's so tight that permission is now required to pass gas . Lose the JAG and slacken the ROE's . Forget about reading 'rights' to our adversaries . They have a right to a hole in the ground . Work WITH the Pakistani Army as a blocking force , to drive all the Taliban elements into the vise . Employ FAE's against all identified Taliban / al Qaeda concentrations . Cut off ALL Russian mafia supplied weapons and ammo shipments coming in and stop ALL heroin / opium shipments going out . Stop the precursor chemicals entirely . Tell Karzai (privately of course) that if he doesn't stop with the blatant corruption BS we will pull all our security that protects him , immediately . We CAN win this thing ! We are not Russia . Let the war fighters call the shots . Not the lawyers nor the pinheads in D.C.

[SolidWood]

It’s always better to depend on regional forces taking care of the neighborhood instead of investing in blood of our troops and vast amounts of our treasures. It’s called the Nixon Doctrine, but the Democrats saw to it that our SW-Asian Partner Iran and in SE-Asia Vietnam were given to the enemy. Nixon wasn’t an idiot after all.

[G8 Diplomat]

Forging a common strategy for "AF-Pak"



AFPAK!

[SevenMinusOne]

Reality is Stan has seen basically several decades worth of progress in less than 8 years......It is no where near the dire straights that has been spun (for both political and $$$ reasons).

Reality is to move Stan out of the dark ages was always going to take about 10-12 years (best estimates from the start). Answers now (and have been) to allow our trigger pullers / shooters to hunt more openly in specific AOR.....while FID operations follow up and throughout the rest of Stan.

Our turning of shooters loose in Iraq back in 05/06 along with FID OPs in Anbar (when Iraq supposedly looked its bleakest) is what actually allowed "the surge" in Iraq to be so successful. The surge helped fill the vacuum left over because of our non-stop DA Ops....and where the surge didn't fill in.....our FID operations did / already were doing so.

Keeping it simple.

1. More HUMINT

2. More DA Ops in the border regions

3. FID OPs

[SevenMinusOne]

Along with understanding. Just as in Iraq (though in differing ways and degrees) the vast majority of the people of Stan our not our enemies....They are part of the long term solution.