Afghanistan: Now it's all out war

[JoFerret]

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/FB24Ag01.html

KARACHI - A massive land and air military operation on either side of the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan is now under way, with the main goals of catching leading commanders of the Afghan resistance, as well as Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar.

The focal point of the operation at this point is the tribal areas of North and South Waziristan on the Pakistani side, and Paktia and Paktika in Afghanistan. ....


....

Across in Afghanistan, coalition troops are conducting house-to-house searches in the town of Khost and its outskirts. Many suspects (mostly bearded with black turbans) have been rounded up.
....
Asia Times Online can confirm media reports in Pakistan that Pakistan has allowed the US to use some of its air bases for surveillance purposes, including Kohat and Bannu. Residents of North West Frontier Province are already witnessing flights of US "spy" planes over the region.

The latest operation will be characterized by:

Very slow development.
Deployment of troops over vast areas.
Extensive use of aerial and satellite monitoring.

<more>

[Roon]

1. here we go....

Bin Laden capture imminent.

[lostnfound]

2. Alternate Possibility: Bin Laden rumor provides cover for 'useful bombing'

Maybe they just want to dampen the resistance or there's some organizing going on that they don't like..

More likely you are right but the other is plausible, too, isn't it?

[Roon]

3. I concur n/t

[0007]

6. I concur

[leesa]

4. Exactly. They want to bomb so let's pretend OBL is there.

For some bizarre reason Americans think it makes sense to bomb a whole country to get one man, or a couple of men, so they may as well use it to their advantage.

[Poiuyt]

8. I concur

America loves to be at war

[tabasco]

12. Bombing is effective for use in the propaganda films.

Although I think we had just cause to invade Afghanistan, I agree that bombing was not an effective strategy. It is clear now that the criminal administration already had laid plans to invade Iraq, so sufficient ground troops were not commited to Afghanistan. Bombing was used in place of saturating the area with infantry.

[DoYouEverWonder]

5. Or maybe someone is planning a big wedding

Or we just feel like blowing up more Afghan families sleeping in their farm houses?

The last few raids came up empty handed and mostly inoccent people were slaughtered. I doubt if these clowns will have any better luck this time. I guess it all depends on Musharif?

[reprobate]

7. You think all that nuclear stuff leaking from pakistan is involved?

[NewYorkerfromMass]

10. also, the defense contractor gets to replace those bombs

so all Cheney and Rumsfeld's pals are happy in the end.

[DoYouEverWonder]

19. They see it as a win , win situation

They use up more stuff and they kill more brown people. The result is that they get richer and richer and there are fewer and fewer people that they have to share with.

[MetaTrope]

9. Just clearing the ground

so the pipeline can go in.

[ex_jew]

11. I think we're lucky to have Afghanistan on the back burner !

When Iraq looks too dreadful, we can always start kicking the shit out of Afghanistan again. It may not accomplish anything, but it looks better on TV than endless car-bombings. Good planning George !

[MostlyBlackCat2]

13. so who's side do we take?

Afghanistans or Pakistans? Pakistan now has nuclear weapons AND apparently OBL - but my money is that we will continue to support them and bomb the Afghans some more. It makes absolutely NO sense. It's IRAQ all over again - prop up a terrorist leader until they get too big for us to control. Guess we should just assume we'll be bombing Pakistan soon? Or since they 'admitted' they have a nuclear weapons program, we'll keep them in our pocket? what a mess!!

[The_Casual_Observer]

14. Osama is too smart to be cornered by chimp

Face it, the score is still Osama 3 chimp 0. Chimp is launching this massive campaign because his ratings are in the toilet. The bastard has drained the treasury. He is being led around by his pig nose and the military is boxing with shadows. The worst part is that the US population is going along with this insanity willingly.

[JCMach1]

15. One my Pakistani operatives (Cab drivers know everything)

Told me that there were too many Americans in Pakistan right now... emphasis on many.

He was from a small village in the Pashtu speaking part of Pakistan.

There are apparently MANY operatives operating in-country now.


Who needs the CIA, ask a Pakistani cab driver. I bet for an extra 50 dirhams I could find out where bin Laden is hiding...

:)

[Zhade]

16. KICK

:dem:

[DoYouEverWonder]

17. This looks like it's going to be a very big operation

Here's some more details about what's going down at the moment:


http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_23-2-2004_pg1_1

Troops prepare for raid in South Waziristan

PESHAWAR: Thousands of Pakistani troops were preparing to launch a raid in South Waziristan Agency on Sunday if tribal elders refused to hand over wanted Al Qaeda suspects, AFP said.

The authorities have sought more paramilitary troops to be deployed in the area, officials told Reuters. However, an ISPR spokesman on Sunday denied a news item that South Waziristan administration had sought deployment of paramilitary troops in the area.

The tribal leaders were last week given a deadline to capture and hand over the suspects as well as local people accused of harbouring them, military officials said. “We have the option to go into action to do the job ourselves after the deadline,” said Pakistan military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan.




Here we go again. Too bad our track record with these raids sucks so bad. So far these big operations, especially when they bring in air power, only kill innocent civilians and children. They rarely kill or find any al Qaeda operatives and so far they are batting a 1000 on not finding Osama.

[Aidoneus]

18. Syed Saleem Shahzad has been to Afghanistan,

what Dahr Jamail has been to Iraq--excellent coverage.