Toronto Sun: Pakistan, Cambodia .... it's all the same to U.S.

[marmar]

Pakistan, Cambodia .... it's all the same to U.S.
By ERIC MARGOLIS


Could we be witnessing the beginning of yet another calamitous foreign misadventure?

Last week, Defence Secretary Robert Gates stated the U.S. is "willing" to send a "small number" of U.S. combat troops to Pakistan to fight the spreading insurgency in its Pashtun tribal areas.

U.S. Special Forces and CIA air and ground units have long staged incursions into Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) along the Afghan border -- in spite of denials by Washington and Islamabad. Under Pakistan's constitution, FATA are supposed to be autonomous and free of any troops, Pakistani or foreign.

Now, as the Afghan war turns increasingly against the U.S. and its allies, Gates wants U.S. Special Forces to "train Pakistani soldiers in counter-insurgency warfare" and join them in combat against pro-Taliban tribesmen -- provided, says Gates, Islamabad "invites" them.

Increasingly isolated, unpopular, and ever more dependent on U.S. support, President Pervez Musharraf may have no choice but eventually to accept an offer he cannot refuse.

Besides an act of political-military desperation, sending U.S. combat troops into Pakistan's wild FATA tribal zones is politically reckless and militarily foolish. They soon would be dragged ever deeper into Pakistan.

U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan already are over stretched and barely able to defend their own vulnerable supply lines. Incursions into Pakistan will pit U.S. -- and perhaps Canadian -- forces against the same warlike Pashtun tribesmen they cannot defeat in Afghanistan. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.torontosun.com/News/Columnists/Margolis_Eric/2008/02/03/4809821-sun.php