Pakistan Orders Troops to Open Fire on U.S. Forces to Stop Raids
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — DEVELOPING: Pakistan’s army spokesman says its forces have orders to open fire if U.S. troops launch another raid across the Afghan border.
Pakistani officials issued sharp protests to Washington after helicopters ferried U.S. commandos into Pakistan’s South Waziristan region on Sept. 3 for a highly unusual ground attack into a militant stronghold.
Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas told The Associated Press that, after the raid, the military told its field commanders to prevent any similar raids.
Abbas said that if it was clear that troops had crossed the ill-defined border into Pakistani territory, either on the ground or in the air, that troops should “open fire.”
Screw Pakistan. The sooner we dispel the myth that we need their cooperation to achieve our objectives in that region the better. India can turn Pakistan into soup and the world would be a much better place - as long as the radiation doesn’t hit the border where we are hunting AQ we should be GTG.
It’s posturing. They know they would get blasted if they tried anything. The only possible downside is if the State Dept gets scared and mandates some totally gay ROE’s.
I guess this is a somewhat expected response from Pakistan, though not much of an intelligent declaration. They are not our ally, they are someone who accepted our financial support for minimal aid they provide in the GWOT. There are scarce differences between that crap whole and the rest of the mid-east. I’m hoping the conference between Adm. Mullen and the Pakistanis goes something to the effect of showing pictures of bombed out government buildings of the Taliban and the Former Iraqi govt. Followed by something to the point of “Is this direction we want to go”. They may very well open fire on U.S. troops, but I’m quite certain they would lose that battle.
I think that most Pakistani troops are smart enough to realize that if they fire on US or NATO soldiers conducting operations, they will call down the wrath of God on them from the sky and go and meet Allah a little earlier than they had hoped.
As an aside, Pakistani protests of “sovereignty” are a little empty. The ceded sovereignty long ago on the regions that are the subject of raids. They ceded it long ago to the Taliban and Al Qaeda and other similar groups who have taken over that area, which makes these groups fair game. If the Pakistanis want to claim sovereignty, lets let them show us they have it by kicking these groups out.
The Pakistanis were a pain in our ass in September 2001 and they are a pain in the ass in September 2008, nothing has changed. Screw them and their Pashtun puppets. If it wasn’t for them, we would have had OBL and all of his command element eliminated a long time ago.
They probably should just issue orders to shoot themselves in the head instead of firing at American troops. This would save time, ammo, and simplify the suicide process for those unfortunate Paki troops.
My company has an office in Pakistan. If they start shooting at our troops, then my fellow employees will then be in a country that is shooting at my friends, relatives, and countrymen.
There was a book about the Russian-Afghan War titled something like “The Bear Went Over the Mountain” by, I think, Les Grau.
If his story is correct, the Pakistani intelligence service greatly aided the Taliban effort against the Russians in a show of support for their fundamentalist Muslim brothers.
I doubt anything has changed with these highly religiously motivated individuals, and I have no doubt they’re either complicit in aiding OBL or would if they could.
This has been a 20 year problem festering. After 9/11 we laid down a line in the sand and the Paki’s came over to our side. Problem is, their government does not speak for the population which even Stevie Wonder can see. The tribal areas recognize no government and this is how it has been for centuries.
The U.S. might consider using the lessons learned from the Mongols and Genghis Khan in the 12th century.
