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Spec ops raids into Pakistan halted
U.S. special operations forces have paused ground operations in Pakistans tribal areas, but military and civilian government officials differ over why the cross-border raids have been halted.The issue of U.S. raids into the tribal areas was thrust into the international spotlight by a Sept. 3 raid in Angor Adda, in the South Waziristan tribal agency, by Navy SEALs working for a Joint Special Operations Command task force. We have shown a willingness starting this year to pursue those kinds of missions, said a Pentagon official. However, he said, after temporarily granting JSOC greater latitude to conduct cross-border missions, U.S. leaders had decided to again restrain the command, at least as far as raids using ground troops are concerned, to allow Pakistani forces to press home their attacks on militants in the tribal areas. We are now working with the Pakistanis to make sure that those type of ground-type insertions do not happen, at least for a period of time to give them an opportunity to do what they claim they are desiring to do, the Pentagon official said, adding that this did not apply to air strikes launched from unmanned aerial vehicles at targets inside the tribal areas. But a U.S. government official closely involved with policy in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region said the military had underestimated the Pakistani response and was reconsidering its options. The officials comments were echoed by a field grade special operations officer with Afghanistan experience. The Sept. 3 raid was an opportunity to see how the new Pakistani government reacted, the officer said. If they didnt do anything, they were just kind of fairly passive, like [former Pakistani President Pervez] Musharraf was then we felt like, okay, we can slowly up the ante, we can do maybe some more of these ops. But the backlash that happened, and especially the backlash in the diplomatic channels, was pretty severe. The raid represented a strategic miscalculation, the U.S. government official said. We did not fully appreciate the vehemence of the Pakistani response, which included the Pakistan governments implication that it was willing to cut the coalitions supply lines through Pakistan. I dont think we really believed it was going to go to that level, the government official said. The militarys comments about the Sept. 3 raid sending a message represented a smokescreen, said the government official, who added that the mission was meant to be the beginning of a campaign. We miscalculated, and now were trying to figure out how to walk the dog back. One way to do that is to say, Oh well, we wanted to send a message; weve now sent that message, and so were going to not send it as much in the future, yet were still sort of leaving it on the table, because as we all know, we never admit to a mistake. Once the Pakistanis started talking about closing down our supply routes, and actually demonstrated they could do it, once they started talking about shooting American helicopters, we obviously had to take seriously that maybe this [approach] was not going to be good enough, the government official said. We cant sustain ourselves in Afghanistan without the Pakistani supply routes. At the end of the day, we had to not let our tactics get in the way of our strategy. As much as it may be good to get some of these bad guys, we cant do it at the expense of being able to sustain ourselves in Afghanistan, obviously. Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2008-09-29 |
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