[Dawn] Pakistain's foreign minister on Saturday warned the United States against sending ground troops to her country to fight an Afghan Death Eater group that America alleges is used as a proxy by Pakistain's top intelligence agency for attacks in neighboring Afghanistan."If you do it, it'll mean war!"
The warning came as a top US military commander was in Pakistain for talks with the army chief at a time of intense strain between the two countries.
"And youse don't wanna take on the Mighty Pak Army!"
The US Embassy said Gen. James Mattis, head of US Central Command, arrived in Pakistain late Friday, and that he will meet the army chief, Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.
... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI...
"They're feared throughout the land!"
Ties between Islamabad and Washington are in crisis after American officials stepped up accusations that Pakistain's Inter Services Intelligence was aiding Islamic fascisti in neighboring Afghanistan, including those who took part in an attack on the US Embassy last week in Kabul.
... as well as the ones who assassinated Rabanni. And there was that little thing about harboring Osama bin Laden for almost ten years...
Pakistain's Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said in an interview Saturday that there are red lines and rules of engagement with America, which should not be broken.
"These don't include harboring America's enemies on our territory, of course. They don't include allowing beturbanned tough guys to swarm across our border into Afghanistan to wreak havoc. They don't include sheltering Mullah Omar and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and Osama bin Laden. They do include any kind of hot pursuit or any kind of defensive action against head-chopping savages inside Pakistain."
"It opens all kinds of doors and all kinds of options," she told Pakistain's private Aaj News TV from New York. The comment was in response to a question about the possibility of US troops coming to Pakistain.
How about U.S. aircraft coming to Pakistain and leveling all those mountains?
Khar, however, insisted that Pakistain's policy was to seek a more intensive engagement with the US and that she would like to discourage any blame game.
"Of course. Don't go blaming us for anything we've done!"
"If many of your goals are not achieved, you do not make someone a scapegoat," she said, addressing the US.