September 25th, 2008
Pakistani & GI Joes lobbing lead
Ed Note:Â See comments below to follow the story of US-Paki relations into the Obamatime.
Well. Maybe we are indeed at war with Pakistan.
Paki army and US army soldiers exchanged gunfire on the ground earlier today, after the Pakis again fired at raiding US helicopters crossing the border.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the Paki army fought a pitched battle with pro-Taliban joes — 50 dead or so.
Is it civil war yet?
And why are we and the Taliban both shooting at the same guys?
Let’s see, the enemy of my friend’s enemy is my enemy’s best friend’s worst enemy of a friend’s …
ed says:
Another US missile has hit another Pakistan village, killing four.
September 30th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
ed says:
!!!!!
The British commander in Afghanistan says no military solution is possible:Â We can’t win this war. Time to talk turkey with the Taliban.
(Yet in the first prez debate last week McCain called repeatedly for a Surge over there.)
October 5th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
ed says:
Another US missile kills twelve “foreigners” in Pakistan.
October 5th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
ed says:
A thoughtful piece about what the Marriott bombing says about the state of the Paki state.
October 7th, 2008 at 11:24 am
ed says:
Zardari, the new president, has ordered the deportation of 50,000 afghan refugees living along the border, citing support for the pro-taliban rebels the Paki army has been fighting for some time.
Clearly something to please Uncle Sam.
October 7th, 2008 at 8:03 pm
ed says:
Another village, more dead.
Clearly the pattern is set — the US is hitting targets in Pakistan — Striking from Afar with its drones — routinely.
How long the Zardari government will last is perhaps the next question.
One would think that its enemies — ie, Uncle Sam’s enemies — within would take advantage of the American financial crisis to make a move.
Then: What then? Something very different Over There for the new US president.
October 16th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
ed says:
Here is a NY Times overview of the new routine, stating Bush gave the OK for attacks in Pakistan in July.
The complacent tone suggests that Zardari and Uncle Sam consider the drone strikes (as opposed to ground force attacks) an acceptable compromise.
But the piece also reports that the Paki secret police have reacted with outrage to the American assaults.
Will Zardari last until the new American president arrives?
Will that arrival change anything?
Obama of course during the campaign has given steady lip-service to the current policy of striking across the border into Pakistan.
Would a Prez Obama change that tune, or, at least, be able to sweet-talk the anti-american faction (heavily weighted in the Paki security forces) back into the fold? I doubt the latter.
And would a Prez Obama change the facts on the ground in Afghanistan that led the Brit commander there to tell the press last month that the West’s war there cannot be won?
Something like the process that led to the dissolution of the East and West Paki state seems in the works.
It’s hard to see the Americans effectively controlling the internal Paki process much longer, given their failure in (comparatively simple) Afghanistan.
October 27th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
ed says:
Ah, another drone strike by the CIA last night, killing 20, including, the Americans claim, two important Taliban leaders.
October 27th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
ed says:
Aha. The biggest move to date by the Paki gov’t to try to stop the American attacks.
Somewhat curiously, the American ambassador (who was called onto the carpet) ia s woman.
Shades of April Glaspie — a fine Foreign Service officer who was assigned to Iraq in the late 80s — and never once met the head of state, until the eve of the Gulf War.
The point: The status of women as public servants in Islamic culture, particularly Islamic police states, is low. To send a woman to such a place as an ambassador might be construed as either insulting or just dumb.
I wonder what her history has been with the passing governments.
October 29th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
ed says:
General Petraeus, transferred from Iraq to the Afghan theater, gets an earful of complaint from the Pakistanis about the American drone missile campaign.
November 4th, 2008 at 3:34 am
ed says:
In the 48 hours surrounding the election of Obama, American missiles killed over 40 people at an Afghan wedding and then another 10 in Pakistan.
It seems Bush-Cheney is intent on the war policy regardless of consequences.
It will take balls for Obama to change it (which of course would first require that he change his mind).
Vegas line is that the Other Side in Pakistan will not wait for Obama to arrive before putting the current government, led by Zardari, out of commission.
November 8th, 2008 at 2:10 am
ed says:
American aid worker and Pakistani driver executed while making rounds in Peshawar, the provincial capital of a province in Pakistan dominated by pro-Taliban, anti-government forces that’s been hit hard by American drone missiles.
The night before (Nov 11), also in Peshawar, a suicide bomber attacked a stadium of people, apparently attempting to kill Paki leaders who had left the area minutes before.
November 12th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
ed says:
Post elections, a big question is what Team Obama will do in Afghanistan.
Two talking heads chat about the matter.
November 14th, 2008 at 4:30 am
ed says:
All is now clear. (Unless clear as mud …)
Full scale NATO war in the Tribal Areas of Pakistan (where the americans have been attacking (see above) piecemeal since September) is on the books for early next year.
ED NOTE: Click the link above to continue following events in the post and comments there.
November 15th, 2008 at 10:53 pm
ed says:
February 2009. Obamaworld.
A top American UN official is kidnapped in Pakistan.
Brings back memories of WS Journal pen Daniel Pearl, who in the end lost his head.
February 2nd, 2009 at 6:47 pm
ed says:
Ho ho. Zardari’s government releases from house arrest Dr Khan, the Paki nuke scientist who helped North Korea, Libya and Iran down that road.
February 6th, 2009 at 6:51 pm
ed says:
Richard Holbroke, who brokered the mediocre Dayton Accord, has been dispatched to Pakghanistan by the new prez.
What’s waiting? Times reports.
February 10th, 2009 at 12:33 am
ed says:
Another US drone strike in Pakistan — killing 27. The second under Obama (unless I’ve missed something).
It seems the Paki president, Zardari, will be on 60 Minutes this weekend. The BBC says he will say that Pakistan is now so heavily invested by the Taliban that Pakistan is fighting for its life.
February 14th, 2009 at 8:57 pm
ed says:
Times reportage to the effect that the two targets hit by Gates-Mullen under Obama constitute a broadening of the US drone campaign.
Lyndon Baines Johnson.
February 21st, 2009 at 12:54 am
ed says:
Click here to continue following events in the mad war under Obama.
February 21st, 2009 at 1:49 am