Article

2008-09-18 India-Pakistan

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by john frum 2008-09-18 00:00|| || Front Page|| [9 views ] Top

#1 A few questions:

They make up 15% of Pakistan's 167 million people. They are well armed and among the most fierce and xenophobic people in the world. It is not beyond their military capabilities to cross the Indus and take Islamabad.

If this is the case, what are the other 85% of the populace doing? If it's a civil war, who's on the other side? Would the Pashtuns rather be Afghan nationals, Pakistani nationals, or both?

Would Pakistan rather fight battles across the Afghan border, or war to the east?

Why does Pakistan exist? What does it mean? What does it signify? Is it a nation? What is its sovreignity? How does it view itself?

Posted by Halliburton - Idiot Suppression Division 2008-09-18 01:32|| 2008-09-18 01:32|| Front Page Top

#2 VARIOUS MIL FORUM POSTERS > a US invasion of PAKLAND RISKS DIRECT MILPOL CONFRONTATION WID PAKI ALLY CHINA [+ per NK-Taiwan issues]???

Many ordinary Chin + BEIJING already twiddling their fingers over the ISLAMIST THREAT TO WESTERN CHINA [Uighurs], CENTRAL ASIA vee RUSSIA-FORMER SSRS, + NORTH ASIA.

Posted by JosephMendiola 2008-09-18 01:33|| 2008-09-18 01:33|| Front Page Top

#3 "indiscriminately bombing "

Fucking Liar.

Posted by OldSpook 2008-09-18 01:40|| 2008-09-18 01:40|| Front Page Top

#4 If war breaks out with Pakistan, who has the most to lose? Is it 'lame duck Bush"? The 15% of wild hellions in west Pakistan? IOr is it the powers that be in Islamabad? The government in Islamabad is my pick. Then you has the most to gain? An exiting American president? A Pak goverment that, at best, has a very tenacious grip on power? Or the Pashtuns in the west? Peace will only come to the regoion when the Pashtuns need it more than the other players there. Look at Iraq as an example of how this problem may be approached.

Posted by Richard of Oregon 2008-09-18 04:26|| 2008-09-18 04:26|| Front Page Top

#5 The only thing worse than total bullshit is moth-eaten discredited total bullshit.
We heard quite enough about the invincible 10-foot-tall Pashtun mountain-men in the few short weeks between 9-11 and the complete rout of the Taliban late in 2001.

Posted by Atomic Conspiracy 2008-09-18 07:17|| 2008-09-18 07:17|| Front Page Top

#6 Our intel is MUCH better than this wanker pretends, not all the Pashtuns like the Talibuggers after all.
Beyond that, I hear vague but persistent muttering about a spectacular technological breakthrough that has been applied in Iraq and that will soon be having major effect in Afghanistan. The delay may be related to priorities and the great value, cost, and limited supply of this particular asset, or it may involve the technology itself and the greater suitability of initial versions for the tactical and logistical environment in Iraq.
Sources range from Bob Woodward, who teases about a development whose impact is comparable to the Manhattan Project in World War, to my own contacts in-theater. Something is up, but I don't have a clue what it is and wouldn't say if I did.

Posted by Atomic Conspiracy 2008-09-18 07:29|| 2008-09-18 07:29|| Front Page Top

#7 RFID and GPS embedded in their personal body lice?

Posted by 3dc 2008-09-18 08:23|| 2008-09-18 08:23|| Front Page Top

#8 But The One said we should go to war with Pakistan.

Posted by Spot">Spot 2008-09-18 09:00|| 2008-09-18 09:00|| Front Page Top

#9 indiscriminately bombing the tribal areas along the Afghan border-Bullshit

risking war with a nuclear power-Bullshit

Overhead surveillance and intercepts do little good in tracking down people in a backward, rural part of the world like this.-Super-Duper Bullshit

Posted by bigjim-ky 2008-09-18 09:23|| 2008-09-18 09:23|| Front Page Top

#10 All this wailing and gnashing of teeth and not a single word about the Brutal Pashtun Winter(tm).

Posted by SteveS 2008-09-18 14:52|| 2008-09-18 14:52|| Front Page Top

#11 You have to put on your Wellies to wade through all the bullshit in this article. Looks like a pre-emptive dem talking point designed to constrain Bush from doing anything about the Pashtun irritant in the tribal belt. But as I've posted elsewhere today, what the heck can we really do with these savages? Cripes, they can't even get along with their neighbors/cousins let alone the rest of the world.

Pakistan is swirling the toilet bowl right now. I see no reason, other than our maintaining a logistics corridor, to not let them get flushed.

Posted by remoteman 2008-09-18 16:57|| 2008-09-18 16:57|| Front Page Top

#12 I like to think of it as "Pakistan is Risking War with Biggest, Baddest Military Power on Earth", but whatever. Go ahead, start some shit. See what that gets ya.

Posted by mojo">mojo 2008-09-18 17:18|| 2008-09-18 17:18|| Front Page Top

#13 Well, Pakistan has been at war with Wasington---via it's ISI operated proxies---for several years now.

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2008-09-18 18:44|| 2008-09-18 18:44|| Front Page Top