Commenting on the New York Post feature cited earlier, Pakistani commentator A R Jerral further claimed that what "Herman suggests in his write-up is in fact a policy direction to the US administration. He implies that the policy of sending drones and attacking militant hideouts in the Pakistan territory has not worked....[T]he thrust is Pakistan's nukes. It is a tacit way to tell the policymakers in Washington to keep the pressure on our country, which will weaken the Pakistani government's standing, causing instability. That will provide the reason for the US troops to move in."
He added: "We know about the drone attacks as these are reported in the media, but what we do not know and our media does not report is the fact that US-led NATO forces are launching crossborder raids into Pakistan....For this, CIA is operating Counterterrorism Pursuit Teams in Afghanistan.
"These teams are regularly mounting ground raids into Pakistani territory."
"In this way, things are getting hot as far as the war on terror is concerned. Pakistan is moving to become centre stage in this war. Bruce Riedel, a former CIA and NSC [National Security Council] official, has advised Mr Obama to shift the focus of war 'from Afghanistan to Pakistan'; this is what we are witnessing in the shape of heightened war effort into the Pakistan territory." [9]
A Pakistani commentary of the preceding day stated: "[W]e have...been dragged into giving the US access to Balochistan from where it has been attempting to destabilise the Iranian regime through support for the terrorist group Jundullah....Even more threatening, unless we change course now, we will have lost the battle to retain our nuclear assets because that is where the NATO-US trail is eventually leading to."
"The free-wheeling access to US covert military and intelligence operatives, both officials and private contractors, is another destabilising factor that we seem to be unable or unwilling to check. And now there are the NATO incursions into our territory and targeting of even our military personnel, which shows how servile a state we are living in at present. [10]
As the war in Afghanistan, the largest and longest in the world, proceeds with record casualties among civilians and combatants alike on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistani border, plans are afoot to further expand the war into Pakistan and to threaten Iran as well.
Comparisons to Washington's war in Indochina have been mentioned. [11] But Pakistan with its 180 million people and nuclear weapons is not Cambodia and Iran with its population of over 70 million is not Laos.
1) Shaheen Sehbai, Zardari says US behind Taliban attacks in Pakistan
The News International, October 13, 2010
http://www.thenews.com.pk/13-10-2010/Top-Story/1276.htm
2) Ibid
3) Ibid
4) Washington Post, September 21, 2009
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/21/AR2009092100110.html
5) Meet the Press, May 10, 2009
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30658135
6) Arthur Herman, Our Pakistan problem: Obama's approach is failing
New York Post, October 3, 2010 http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/our_pakistan_problem_1TqxfBu89mDxSlZHUtHj2K
Obama's Pakistan Failure
American Enterprise Institute, October 3, 2010
http://www.aei.org/article/102612
7) ABC News Radio, October 13, 2010
8) New America Foundation
http://counterterrorism.newamerica.net/drones
9) A R Jerral, Shifting war on terror to Pakistan
The Nation, October 13, 2010
http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Opinions/Columns/13-Oct-2010/Shifting-war-on-terror-to-Pakistan
10) Shireen M Mazari, Ending Collaboration with the US on the War on
Pakistan
The Dawn, October 12, 2010
http://thedawn.com.pk/2010/10/12/ending-collaboration-with-the-us-on-the-war-on-pakistan
11) NATO Expands Afghan War Into Pakistan
Stop NATO, September 28, 2010
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/09/28/nato-expands-afghan-war-into-pakistan
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