U.S. pressure on Pakistan may risk terrorist backlash

[laststeamtrain]

Source: McClatchy Newspapers

U.S. pressure on Pakistan may risk terrorist backlash
By Saeed Shah, McClatchy Newspapers 1 hr 29 mins ago

KARACHI, Pakistan — As the U.S. turns up the pressure on Pakistan to launch a new military offensive in the North Waziristan tribal area following the Times Square bombing attempt, analysts warn that a frontal assault could lead to a terrible terrorist backlash.

U.S. national security adviser Gen. James Jones and CIA chief Leon E. Panetta were due in Islamabad late Tuesday with an agenda that includes asking Pakistan to "do more" in the anti-terror fight, with an offensive in North Waziristan expected at the top to their list.

<snip>

Analysts say an assault on Pakistan's last untouched redoubt of extremists may be unavoidable if Pakistan wants to eliminate extremist havens on its soil. However, such an assault could scatter militants across the country, and Pakistan is already reeling from a wave of terrorist violence that claimed at estimated 3,000 lives last year.

<snip>

Pakistani experts have different perspective. "If there was a military operation in North Waziristan, it would open a Pandora's box of terrorism in Pakistan . They (the military) know they are incapable of handling North Waziristan," said Syed Saleem Shehzad , a journalist and expert on Pakistani extremist groups. "It would turn the whole of Pakistan into a battlefield."

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20100518/wl_mcclatchy/3509177

[msongs]

1. used to be that bombing civilians in another country was an act of war. not anymore nt

[Wizard777]

2. It used to be that we went to war against nations and every last person in that nation if need be.

Now we go to war with ideologies. How in the hell do you bomb an ideology? The only physical presence an Ideology has is people.

[Wizard777]

3. We need to stand firm on Pakistan. They are far more of a threat than Iran.

[EFerrari]

5. The Pakistani people are not our enemies. n/t

[OhioChick]

6. +1 n/t

[Wizard777]

9. The ones harboring Al Qaida and other terrorists are.

A friend of my enemy is my enemy.

[No Elephants]

12. Exactly what Sadat recited to explain why he co-operated with the Germans in WW II.

However, he cited that as he explained how wrong he had been to use a cliche like that to determine Egypt's foreign policy.


Sometimes, actual thought is required.

(To the control freaks warming up their fingers for yet another knee jerk Godwin's Faux "Law" post, that goes for you, too.)

[closeupready]

15. Correct. Frankly, I think you need to look at where the money for terrorist groups

is coming from. Whoever is financing this - that's the bigger problem.

course, it's easier (and more PC) to make a boogeyman out of a race of people than financiers.

[cosmicone]

7. +1000 ... this story is propagated by Pakistani lobbyists

for Pakistani Military/ISI who don't want their terrorist infrastructure dismantled. If ISI stops funding these terrorists and clamps down on heroin smuggling through Pakistan, they will wither away -- they have no other source of funds.

[Wizard777]

10. The heroin is headed for Dubai. It's the Miami of the Middle East.

We need to tell them straight up. Give us the terrorists or we'll come in and take them.

[laststeamtrain]

11. Too bad Lee Marvin is gone. He was good at that stuff.

Here he is with the Chuckster:

"GIVE US THE TERRORISTS OR WE'LL TAKE THEM!"

(A Golan-Globus Production, of course.)

[unc70]

18. -1,000,000 as Kashmiri prop.

[unc70]

14. The blowback is within PK. Do you know anything about PK?

Beyond the standard TPs?

[closeupready]

16. Most people here do not. Why I rarely bothering 'discussing' it here anymore.

n/t

[BunkerHill24]

4. U.S. pressure on Pakistan may risk terrorist backlash.....

"terrorist backlash" ?


America's tax payers already have backlash over Afghanistan.....thousand dead service men/woman along trillion money brought and borrowed from china...and no more an end over of YOUR fighting machine over in Afghanistan!

Sorrow is such.....a look toward the grave!

[Robb]

8. Not that anyone here pays attention

...but the whole of Pakistan is already a goddamn battlefield.

[No Elephants]

13. MAY? May? May?

:rofl:

In a similar story, scientists are about to start wondering if cigarette smoking may be unhealthy.

Stay tuned and see if Pakistanis ever actually do start getting ticked at the U.S. for civilian deaths caused by bombs and predator drones and contemplate retaliation, or if scientists ever do actually start wondering about the link between cigarette smoking and damage to the body.

Odds are, one or the other or both will begin in 3-2-LONG AGO.

[Robb]

17. Do you know how much killing those drones would have to do

...to http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=4295130">even make http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=4301194">a fucking http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=4304013">dent http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=4347081">in Pakistan's http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=4348831">recent http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=4354357">death toll http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=4378219">courtesy http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=4386345">the Taliban? :eyes: