Posted on 09/22/2008 9:41:58 AM PDT by The_Tick_01
The U.S. – Pakistan relationship is in crisis. Tensions continue to mount between the Bush Administration and a fractured Pakistani government over violations of Pakistan’s sovereignty by American military forces, and Pakistan’s commitment to the war on terror is growing more tenuous by the day. Because Pakistan either cannot or will not secure its side of the border with Afghanistan, the United States has increasingly felt compelled to act.
There is some justification for U.S. actions. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy defines sovereignty as “supreme authority within a territory.” In no way, shape, or form does the Pakistani government have any semblance of control, let alone supreme authority, over the Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) or the Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP) regions along the Afghan-Pakistan border.
Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters come and go freely, regularly crossing from Pakistan into Afghanistan to conduct attacks on U.S., NATO, and Afghan security forces before retreating back to safe havens on Pakistani soil. The border, known as the Durand Line, is disputed by Afghanistan, which lays claim to the FATA and a portion of the NWFP, and senior al-Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri are believed to be hiding on the Pakistani side. The border area is a disputed region in turmoil, part of Pakistan’s sovereign territory on maps only.
(Excerpt) Read more at newmediajournal.us ...
Elvis isn’t dead... he just went home!
Pakistan doesn’t have sovereignty over the border areas with Afghanistan either. Nor does Pakistan have sovereignty over Islamabad.
“K” said it, so it must be true.
speculation. If Pakistan = failed state, then who picks up the pieces? China?
A Yalu River scenario is not out of the question, just unexpected. Like Korea, we could see China come to the aid of Pakistan against an invading force by throwing massive numbers of Chinese soldiers into the battle.
The biblical 200 million man army?
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