Far more to fear from Pakistan than Iraq

[babylonsister]

http://www.nj.com/columns/ledger/farmer/index.ssf?/base/columns-0/1184913401295570.xml&coll=1

Far more to fear from Pakistan than Iraq
Friday, July 20, 2007

So what do we do now -- invade Pakistan?

George Bush says Iraq is the central front in the war on al Qaeda -- if true, he made it so -- but the latest version of the National Intelligence Estimate contradicts him. Pakistan is the real central front, according to the best judgment of the 16 agencies that make up the nation's intelligence community.

Al Qaeda, it turns out, is a moving target. And should the haven it has chosen this time, a nuclear- armed Pakistan, fall into radical Islamist hands, the menace it would pose to America and the West would vastly exceed any threat from Iraq.

The sanctuary that al Qaeda lost in Afghanistan it has regained in the mountainous tribal areas of northwest Pakistan, a kind of South Asian wild, wild west, where the writ of the government of President Pervez Musharraf, our ally of sorts, evidently does not run. There, protected by friendly Islamic tribal chiefs and Taliban die- hards, al Qaeda has regenerated it self -- planning, recruiting, training fighters, raising money and rekin dling contacts with like-minded "affiliate" terrorist groups, including al Qaeda in Iraq.

Six years after the 9/11 attacks and after almost five years of war in Iraq, Osama bin Laden's mob is back in business and securer than ever. And the American homeland remains at risk, the National Intelligence Estimate concludes.

It's not clear how the Bush administration will respond -- or if it will at all -- to this dire news. There are no easy options.

more...

[blondeatlast]

1. We could have had ObL if Bush would be as tough with Musharrif as he is with Iran.

Offer Musharrif protection from us in return for helping us root out aQ in Pakistan, but no--ObL was in ObL's despised state of Iraq :eyes:

Things are coming to a head over there--and Pakistan has nukes and has tested them. A little games/statesmanship from the US toward Pakistan and ObL would be history, but instead, we went to war with a non-threat over a yellow-cake fairy tale.

[Javaman]

2. When this whole bullshit war on terror began, the first thing I said to a buddy of mine

was: if we really want to go after the "terrorists" then we should attack Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. My friend looked at me like I was crazy.

And now here we are.

[babylonsister]

3. And it's now spiraling out of control, just as everything the dim one touches does. nt

[EFerrari]

10. And meanwhile, the US looks the other way while Kurdish

terrorists attack inside Turkey, who in return has now put troops along that board. We're spreading democracy like crazy over there.

[bryant69]

7. There it is.

Or if Bush were a more deft politician and actually believed in diplomacy, and wasn't in bed with the Saudis he could pressured those governments from a position of strength. Instead he was already mortgaged to Saudi Arabia and he quickly mortgaged himself to Pakistan.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[TwilightGardener]

4. I hate to say it, but it might be necessary--it's an extension of our efforts

in Afghanistan, at least. Will Musharraf look the other way and allow us? Will he help us? It's hard to say how this will go, but terrorists (the REAL ones) + Nukes = Holy Crap. We can't allow that to happen, as awful as it is to contemplate more ground war.

[blondeatlast]

6. I hate to say it too--but if we'd done this as you say--and extension of Afghanistan--

aQ would be much weaker, IMHO.

[TwilightGardener]

8. Yes--this is why Iraq was such a disaster, among many other reasons--

we should have used all of that "shock and awe" military might in stopping al Qaeda long before they were able to escape and regroup--we're paying the piper now. We've GOT to get out of Iraq, give our soldiers some rest, and prepare for this next threat.

[blondeatlast]

5. Kicking due to the rumors...

I believe rawstory just a little more than Newsmax, but it does pay to keep an ear to the ground.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

9. Just posted this article from LeMonde that shows that Al-Quida's hold on Pakistan is tenuous.

http://mondediplo.com/2007/07/02al-qaida

According to the article Al Quida is being kicked out of Pakistan and Afghanistan by the Taliban who are more interested in attacking the local governments than the world-wide Islamic visions of AQ.

[blondeatlast]

11. So the neoCons wanted to get aQ into Iraq,

even though it left the Iraqi people virtually defenseless as all factions try to off each other and the US vainly attempts to destroy al Qaeda.

Dr Muhammad Bashar al-Faithi, a leading member of the Muslim Scholars’ Association, a component of Iraqi resistance to the US, told me: “After US forces installed Paul Bremer as administrator, he disbanded Iraq’s security forces. We formed a delegation and cautioned him as to the wisdom of Iraq’s borders being left open on all sides. At the least a border security force should have been retained. Bremer disagreed and dismissed all Iraqi security forces as Saddamists. The Iraqis were left standing by as all sorts of unscrupulous elements and terrorists, from Iran and al-Qaida, gathered in Iraq in pursuit of their agendas. Today I believe it was Bremer’s deliberate policy to draw al-Qaida militants into Iraq, where it is far more easy to kill or capture them than in Waziristan or Afghanistan” (5).

Good lord.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

12. The brilliant planners in D.C. always expect the other guys to read the script.

And, play their assigned roles according to it. Alas, they had other ideas.