Posted on 12/04/2011 6:22:19 AM PST by nuconvert
QUETTA: An American aircraft reached Pakistan on Sunday to carry US nationals who are vacating the Shamsi airbase in Balochistan.
Sources said that the aircraft landed in Pakistan today (Sunday), and the passengers were shifted to the aircraft amongst strict security. Officials from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) were also present at the site.
Residents living around the area were told not to leave their homes while the American nationals were being shifted to the aircraft.
Pakistan demanded that the US leave the remote airbase used for drone flights within 15 days and blocked ground supply routes to US forces in Afghanistan, following the Nato attack on a military outpost on November 26 that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.
The controversial airbase, located about 300 kilometres from Quetta, has been used as a key launch pad for drone strikes in Afghanistan and allegedly also for those carried out in Pakistan’s own tribal areas. This is the third time Pakistan has demanded the US to vacate the base. Similar demands were made after CIA operative Raymond Davis killed two Pakistanis in Lahore and in the aftermath of the unilateral US raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
One US government source earlier told The Express Tribune that the US has spent months preparing for a possible eviction from the airbase by building up other drone launching and staging capability.
Earlier this year, after the US raid that killed bin Laden, some Pakistani officials demanded that Washington vacate the Shamsi facility.
At the time, however, US officials said that American personnel would remain at the base and would continue to conduct drone flights.
US officials had acknowledged that this time Pakistan appears much more resolute about carrying out the eviction threat.
Vacating the airbase was seen more as an inconvenience rather than a critical blow to drone operations, which the US also conducts from Afghanistan and possibly elsewhere.
We are in retreat on all fronts. Even our allies are pushing us back and reclaiming ground which had been under our control.
Now, if our job is done, we ought to leave. But if our job is not done, we should stay. A strong president might look at the situation and simply say, "We're not leaving." That would absolutely work, with a strong president. Obama is not strong. He's pulling out everywhere because someone suggested it. He's retreating on all fronts.
This is just Obama, voting “Present”, again.
I wouldn't call Pakistan an ally.
While the Pakis have never been reall allies, at least Bush kept them from being overtly against us (I believe he made it clear they could either "join" us or suffer more direct actions to ensure they wouldn't actively interfere). During his campaign, Obama lit the fuse by saying that Pakistan need to be dealt with more than Afghanistan and Iraq - this eviction is a direct result of his ineptitude.
What would happen if we nuked their nukes? Anyone?
Another diplomatic coup for the Obama-Clinton Axis.
Turn off the $$$.
This could be all for the good in the end.
WWII is on the horizon just as surely as in 1930s WWII was on the horizon. It is coming and I think it is too late to stop it.
Those that will soon be at war against each other are choosing up sides. It is better we are not in the middle of enemy territory when all out war breaks out.
I pity the United Kingdom and all of Europe. They have allowed the fifth columnist to infiltrate every aspects of their nations. Will they be able to survive, perhaps, but at a large loss of life.
United States has a similar problem but we are a bigger nations and more scattered. The battle fields will be in the big cities.
If I believed in conspiracies I would think there has been a connection between “political correctness”, the environmentalist, and the elite in this nation to cripple us morally and financially.
Our enemies know they can not win against us in a conventional war so the next war is going to break all the rules.
Indeed. The bear has reawakened.
We need to assure this continent from pole to pole. And work fiercely on the infiltrating elements in this country.
3 years. In only 3 years. I curse the idiots that voted for this chump.
“We are in retreat on all fronts. Even our allies are pushing us back and reclaiming ground which had been under our control.”
Unfortunately, the greatest “retreat” is occurring right here at home (and throughout the “home front” in the other nations of The West).
There can be no hope of “reclaiming ground” elsewhere in the world unless and until we have a clear understanding (and with that, the will) of who and/or what are the forces that oppose us. Since 2001, those who lead us have been unwilling to breach this subject.
I wish I could be more optimistic about this. But the reality is that the United States has become so divided a nation that the establishment of a “common understanding” and common commitment is now impossible. How can we unite against as destructive and retrograde a force as Islam, when here at home we are all-but in a state of “Cold Civil War”?
At some point in the future the west will be at war with Pakistan/Iran/China/Syria/Somolia/North Korea, pick one or more. Wait a minute. I guess this is the future.
In which case it is easier to pick them off now in a real war. Get Pakistan's nukes and defang them. The Iranian regime is brittle, seeing three regimes on their borders lose wars to the Americans while their nuclear facilities spontaneously explode might make them even more skittish.
Syria will fall shortly, just a matter of time. The US would be much better positioned to dictate the peace if Pakistan and Iran are disarmed.
At some point in the future the west will be at war with Pakistan/Iran/China/Syria/Somolia/North Korea, pick one or more. Wait a minute. I guess this is the future.
In which case it is easier to pick them off now in a real war. Get Pakistan's nukes and defang them. The Iranian regime is brittle, seeing three regimes on their borders lose wars to the Americans while their nuclear facilities spontaneously explode might make them even more skittish.
Syria will fall shortly, just a matter of time. The US would be much better positioned to dictate the peace if Pakistan and Iran are disarmed.
At some point in the future the west will be at war with Pakistan/Iran/China/Syria/Somolia/North Korea, pick one or more. Wait a minute. I guess this is the future.
In which case it is easier to pick them off now in a real war. Get Pakistan's nukes and defang them. The Iranian regime is brittle, seeing three regimes on their borders lose wars to the Americans while their nuclear facilities spontaneously explode might make them even more skittish.
Syria will fall shortly, just a matter of time. The US would be much better positioned to dictate the peace if Pakistan and Iran are disarmed.
Shamsi was a small airfield given to the United Arab Emirates in 1992 as the UAE needed an all-weather airfield to land jets for well paying Arab clients that wanted to hunt and travel Balochistan.
The Baloch are ethnically Arab and many have migrated to the UAE and become very wealthy. The UAE extended the runway, added electronic beacons and added an all-weather 24/7 control tower.
After 9/11 when we heavy lifted into Afghanistan, we needed an intermediate airfield for our aircraft if Afghanistan weather was impassable to land. So we leased Shamsi for a Pakistan over-flight way station of sorts.
When we first brought UAV’s to Pakistan, they were initially based at Shamsi too. But it was too far from the FATA to launch UAV’s that needed extensive dwell time over the theater for continuous patrols.
We moved the UAV’s elsewhere, closer to the theater, most are based out of Afghanistan. UAV’s can be launched from other aircraft, what makes the media think they are land based in theater?
Anyway this is much ado about nothing.
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