US 'Not Doing Enough': Pakistan

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

Pakistan says Washington not doing enough​

By Ismail Khan
Thursday, 25 Sep, 2008 | 07:31 PM PKT |

Pakistani paramilitary soldiers arrive on the outskirts of Peshawar, Pakistan, in the early hours of Sunday, Sept. 14, 2008, after a tip of militant movements in the area. (file photo)​

PESHAWAR: As the United States pressures Pakistan to do more, Islamabad says it is Washington that is skirting around the real issue of providing the resources to Pakistan to deal with militancy in an effective manner, military and security officials said.

‘We have been saying this and raising this issue virtually at every tier including at the highest level, give us the capability we need, to effectively control the situation in our tribal areas but the Americans have been skirting around the issue’, these officials said in background interviews with Dawn.

The issue was once again raised with the Americans in the last interaction they had when Admiral Mullen, the Chairman of the U.S Joint Chief of Staff visited Islamabad on September 17, according to these officials.

‘When we ask for capability, they start talking about joint operations and training programmes.

We tell them ‘give us the capability and you will see more effective control of the tribal areas. And they tell us we are looking into it’, is how one military official described the Americans response.

‘We have been saying this for the last four years but there has not been any satisfactory answer’, he said.

These officials, who were privy to negotiations between the Pak-US military leaderships at various times, say that Pakistan has been asking for Night Vision Devices (NVDs), good communication and surveillance systems that can detect and track down militants’ communication besides transport and attack helicopters.

The price of one Cobra helicopter is said to be close to $20 million, making the demand by Pakistan for the military assistance to help combat militancy and terrorism as a multi billion dollar package.

‘What we need is air mobility and NVDs for night operations and not any training programmes. For two years, we have been putting our battalion through a six months rigorous counter-insurgency training programme before we send them into Fata’, the officials said.

Officials acknowledged that massive troop deployments alone would not solve the Fata conundrum. ‘The terrain is such that any number of the army divisions would fall short. It is tough out there. It’s not an easy job. It’s an area where forces are prone to ambushes, rocket attacks and IEDs.’

They said that what was required was the multiplication of efforts in order to deal with militancy on the one hand and preempt collateral damage on the other.

‘That’s why we say that we need air mobility in terms of air assault capability, communication and surveillance systems and night vision goggles’, one official said.

He said that these issues were raised by the military chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the Chief of General Staff and the Director General Military Operations in their various meetings with American counterparts.

Officials in the know of the Bajaur operation acknowledged how severely handicapped Pakistan felt on account of limited air mobility when helicopters are diverted from one area to the other.

‘After one hour of operation, helicopters require nine to ten hours of maintenance. There is tremendous load on these helicopters from Bajaur to Swat to Darra Adamkhel’, one official said.

‘So when the Americans demand that Pakistan take action in the length and breadth of Fata to combat militancy and terrorism, we know what our handicaps and deficiencies are. That’s why we have made our own priorities. There can be one operation in one area at a time. This is our handicap. We don’t have the capacity to engage all the tribal regions. The Americans will either have to understand this or help us by giving us the capability we need’, the official said.

The official said that Pakistan needed to refurbish its helicopters and get sophisticated communication and surveillance system to outdo the militants, who, he added, were using one of the best communication systems. ‘We still use the age-old communication system. This needs to be replaced’, he said.

SUSPICIONS

The irony however, is that, according to this official, the Americans collect the few NVDs provided to the Pakistan Army for routine re-inspection after every three months. ‘Such is the level of trust between us. They fear that some of these NVDs may fall into the wrong hands.’

Such is the level of trust deficit that some circles in the government strongly suspect American motives for putting two much emphasis on training and joint operation than on providing the necessary hardware to help Pakistan overcome problems in its own backyard.

Some government circles are weary and suspicious of large American foot-prints in Pakistan. ‘They want to penetrate our systems and they think that we are naïve not to know what they did in Vietnam and Cambodia’, said one skeptical official, like other officials, requesting he not be named due to sensitivity of the matter.

Pakistan has received $ 6.7 billion since 2002 in Coalition Support Fund for logistic services but knowledgeable sources say that the military has received a fraction of that sum, while most of it went into other projects.

Some senior officials are miffed that while the security forces are fighting a hard battle against militants in Bajaur, the US-led coalition forces across the border have done nothing to stop Afghan Taliban and foreign militants from getting into the Pakistani tribal region.

A security official said that the Commander of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, Gen. David McKiernan admitted that the level of violence in Bajaur’s neighbouring Afghan province of Kunar had dropped by almost 70% due to Pakistani security engagements in Bajaur.

‘The level of violence in Kunar has decreased at the expense of Bajaur, where it has gone up, and that basically because of the Afghan Taliban led by Qari Ziaur Rehman and his Al-Qaeda cohorts’, the official said.

‘Now one may ask, why our American friends who have been asking us to do more, not been able to do more on their side of the border in Kunar by stopping the infiltration of Taliban and foreign elements coming into our territory.’

‘They have better capabilities, certainly better than the capability of a third world country’, the official remarked.

Suspicions are further compounded when, the security official said, the Americans did not act on Pakistan’s intelligence to take out some of the key tribal militant leaders. ‘We gave the intelligence and the coordinates but they took no action’, the official said. ‘They don’t seem to have any interest in our bad guys’, the official said.

THE AMERICAN VERSION

One Pentagon official said that it was hard to put a dollar value on the Pakistan military’s wish-list but said that ‘it's a continual list. It never ends.’

In some cases, like the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles or UAV's and the more advanced Cobra helicopters, the US is unwilling to sell that technology to the Pakistani government, the Pentagon official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the issue of US policy.

In others, like the overall helicopter maintenance program, the source said there had been disagreement over how the Pakistani military structured the programme and dissatisfaction within the US administration that capable-flight rate was so low.

In other cases, this official said, the US and Pakistani government had conflicting views on the priority of the specific piece of equipment or system.

‘So don't look at this as a single, comprehensive request,’ the official said. ‘The US views sale of some of this stuff favorably and others not.’

On the training programme, the US officials claimed that they had practically begged the Pakistani army, in particular, to engage in broader training with US forces, including the Special Services Group and Frontier Corps training, but that the military and Pakistani government had refused.

The United States is providing $75 million for direct support of the Frontier Corps, and includes about 13,000 sets of body armor and Kevlar helmets, 330 vehicles, numerous radios, binoculars, first-aid kits and low-visibility imaging systems, as well as money to set up the two FC training facilities, including the first one in Warsak near Peshawar.

DAWN.COM | Pakistan | Pakistan says Washington not doing enough AAH

 

[Munir]

It indeed shows the double standards and onesided actions. The term good weather friendship is history. We pay you, you die and even then we call you names... We will blaim you for everything. We will invade but respect borders... I feel sorry for Kyani.

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

In others, like the overall helicopter maintenance program, the source said there had been disagreement over how the Pakistani military structured the programme and dissatisfaction within the US administration that capable-flight rate was so low.

I remember that a little less than a year ago the NYT ran an article that quoted senior Pakistani officials (the same argument was raised by other officials in later articles) complaining about how a large part of the Cobra fleet was grounded at any given time because of the restrictions the US imposed on providing spare parts and inspections of the equipment, similar to the NVG issue.

If the Pakistani account is true, and the restrictions and bottlenecks still not resolved, then I can see perhaps why the capable-flight rate might be so low - Given the inordinate delays in the provisions of spares etc., the PA may not want to put its equipment through the grind in that they may be left with even more grounded choppers.

Of course the other aspect could be that the US concerns, around the issues of low capable-flight rates, are issues from the era of 'peace deals', when the PA's military ops. were stop-start affairs with no particular goal in mind, other than another peace deal.

Nonetheless, it seems that with Bajaur and Swat now, the GoP and military are starting to deploy far more resources than they ever did before. If these operations continue, and they will likely be long and hard fought, the military will hopefully build up some of the confidence it has lost, and in turn get greater support from the new US administration for its CI needs.

 

[pkpatriotic]

Pakistan says Washington not doing enough
PESHAWAR: As the United States pressures Pakistan to do more, Islamabad says it is Washington that is skirting around the real issue of providing the resources to Pakistan to deal with militancy in an effective manner, military and security officials said.

'We have been saying this and raising this issue virtually at every tier including at the highest level, give us the capability we need, to effectively control the situation in our tribal areas but the Americans have been skirting around the issue’, these officials said in background interviews with Dawn.

The issue was once again raised with the Americans in the last interaction they had when Admiral Mullen, the Chairman of the U.S Joint Chief of Staff visited Islamabad on September 17, according to these officials.

‘When we ask for capability, they start talking about joint operations and training programmes.

We tell them ‘give us the capability and you will see more effective control of the tribal areas. And they tell us we are looking into it’, is how one military official described the Americans response.

‘We have been saying this for the last four years but there has not been any satisfactory answer’, he said.

These officials, who were privy to negotiations between the Pak-US military leaderships at various times, say that Pakistan has been asking for Night Vision Devices (NVDs), good communication and surveillance systems that can detect and track down militants’ communication besides transport and attack helicopters.

The price of one Cobra helicopter is said to be close to $20 million, making the demand by Pakistan for the military assistance to help combat militancy and terrorism as a multi billion dollar package.

‘What we need is air mobility and NVDs for night operations and not any training programmes. For two years, we have been putting our battalion through a six months rigorous counter-insurgency training programme before we send them into Fata’, the officials said.

Officials acknowledged that massive troop deployments alone would not solve the Fata conundrum. ‘The terrain is such that any number of the army divisions would fall short. It is tough out there. It’s not an easy job. It’s an area where forces are prone to ambushes, rocket attacks and IEDs.’

They said that what was required was the multiplication of efforts in order to deal with militancy on the one hand and preempt collateral damage on the other.

‘That’s why we say that we need air mobility in terms of air assault capability, communication and surveillance systems and night vision goggles’, one official said.

He said that these issues were raised by the military chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the Chief of General Staff and the Director General Military Operations in their various meetings with American counterparts.

Officials in the know of the Bajaur operation acknowledged how severely handicapped Pakistan felt on account of limited air mobility when helicopters are diverted from one area to the other.

‘After one hour of operation, helicopters require nine to ten hours of maintenance. There is tremendous load on these helicopters from Bajaur to Swat to Darra Adamkhel’, one official said.

‘So when the Americans demand that Pakistan take action in the length and breadth of Fata to combat militancy and terrorism, we know what our handicaps and deficiencies are. That’s why we have made our own priorities. There can be one operation in one area at a time. This is our handicap. We don’t have the capacity to engage all the tribal regions. The Americans will either have to understand this or help us by giving us the capability we need’, the official said.

The official said that Pakistan needed to refurbish its helicopters and get sophisticated communication and surveillance system to outdo the militants, who, he added, were using one of the best communication systems. ‘We still use the age-old communication system. This needs to be replaced’, he said.

SUSPICIONS

The irony however, is that, according to this official, the Americans collect the few NVDs provided to the Pakistan Army for routine re-inspection after every three months. ‘Such is the level of trust between us. They fear that some of these NVDs may fall into the wrong hands.’

Such is the level of trust deficit that some circles in the government strongly suspect American motives for putting two much emphasis on training and joint operation than on providing the necessary hardware to help Pakistan overcome problems in its own backyard.

Some government circles are weary and suspicious of large American foot-prints in Pakistan. ‘They want to penetrate our systems and they think that we are naïve not to know what they did in Vietnam and Cambodia’, said one skeptical official, like other officials, requesting he not be named due to sensitivity of the matter.

Pakistan has received $ 6.7 billion since 2002 in Coalition Support Fund for logistic services but knowledgeable sources say that the military has received a fraction of that sum, while most of it went into other projects.

Some senior officials are miffed that while the security forces are fighting a hard battle against militants in Bajaur, the US-led coalition forces across the border have done nothing to stop Afghan Taliban and foreign militants from getting into the Pakistani tribal region.

A security official said that the Commander of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, Gen. David McKiernan admitted that the level of violence in Bajaur’s neighbouring Afghan province of Kunar had dropped by almost 70% due to Pakistani security engagements in Bajaur.

‘The level of violence in Kunar has decreased at the expense of Bajaur, where it has gone up, and that basically because of the Afghan Taliban led by Qari Ziaur Rehman and his Al-Qaeda cohorts’, the official said.

‘Now one may ask, why our American friends who have been asking us to do more, not been able to do more on their side of the border in Kunar by stopping the infiltration of Taliban and foreign elements coming into our territory.’ Tit for tat

‘They have better capabilities, certainly better than the capability of a third world country’, the official remarked.

Suspicions are further compounded when, the security official said, the Americans did not act on Pakistan’s intelligence to take out some of the key tribal militant leaders. ‘We gave the intelligence and the coordinates but they took no action’, the official said. ‘They don’t seem to have any interest in our bad guys’, the official said.

THE AMERICAN VERSION

One Pentagon official said that it was hard to put a dollar value on the Pakistan military’s wish-list but said that ‘it's a continual list. It never ends.’

In some cases, like the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles or UAV's and the more advanced Cobra helicopters, the US is unwilling to sell that technology to the Pakistani government, the Pentagon official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the issue of US policy.
In others, like the overall helicopter maintenance program, the source said there had been disagreement over how the Pakistani military structured the programme and dissatisfaction within the US administration that capable-flight rate was so low.

In other cases, this official said, the US and Pakistani government had conflicting views on the priority of the specific piece of equipment or system.

‘So don't look at this as a single, comprehensive request,’ the official said. ‘The US views sale of some of this stuff favorably and others not.’

On the training programme, the US officials claimed that they had practically begged the Pakistani army, in particular, to engage in broader training with US forces, including the Special Services Group and Frontier Corps training, but that the military and Pakistani government had refused.

The United States is providing $75 million for direct support of the Frontier Corps, and includes about 13,000 sets of body armor and Kevlar helmets, 330 vehicles, numerous radios, binoculars, first-aid kits and low-visibility imaging systems, as well as money to set up the two FC training facilities, including the first one in Warsak near Peshawar.

 

[muse]

This game of who and who is not doing enough is silly and counter productive - more important questions is how can Pakistan be helped to be a more productive partner - What is preventing it from being a more productive partner? - Is the US a reliable partner? Will it be around and be reliable in the forseeable future? Does/will the US recognize Pakistani interests in Afghanistan?

Clearly, concerns about each other are valid in the sense that the two are basing policy decisions on their perceptions of each other

‘Big US effort needed to help Pakistan fight terrorism’: US needs to boost Pakistan civil, military aid: Mullen

Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman says US wants to help Pakistan counter terrorism rather than conducting own operations

WASHINGTON: The United States needs a big long-term effort with civilian and military elements to help Pakistan fight militants who pose America’s toughest national security problem, top US military officer Admiral Mike Mullen said.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told Reuters the United States wanted to help Pakistan counter terrorism in Tribal Areas rather than conduct its own operations but would act to protect Americans.

“I think it’s the most challenging problem we have,” he said on board a US Air Force jet on Wednesday evening as he flew back to Washington from California. “In too many cases, we were focused on Pakistan like it was just another country,” he said. “It’s not just another country — it’s a country with a growing insurgency, with a border that’s created a safe haven.”"

“We need a five or six or seven or 10-year program of support that’s predictable, that the Pakistani people and government and military can depend on,” Mullen said.

Mullen said he was working to get more help for Pakistan’s military including long-term maintenance deals for helicopters, night vision gear for aircraft and new equipment for the paramilitary Frontier Corps, which is drawn from the Tribal Areas.

“Clearly, Americans are not very popular in Pakistan. Many Pakistanis see it as America’s war, not their war. And I understand all that ... I’m not trying to fan those flames,” he said.

“It’s (about) this threat against America that is there with Al Qaeda and the need to get there and address it and the responsibility we have to protect our own country and our own men and women who are in the fight in Afghanistan,” he said. reuters

 

[Omar1984]

The people of Pakistan should support the Pakistani army, the Pakistani army and the Pakistani intelligence (ISI) are the only ones who can be trusted.

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

The whole 'blame game' from the two sides possibly explains another issue that has cast serious doubts over US intentions in Pakistan - the reported lack of interest in targeting Baitullah Mehsud when specific coordinates were provided at least twice.

It is quite possible a case of 'tit for tat'. Pakistan has long refused to target groups such as those of Mulah Nazir and Haqqani because they have focused their activities primarily in Afghanistan, and has instead gone after groups such as the TTP with activities focused in Pakistan.

The US has made clear its frustration with the leaders it considers to be active in Afghanistan not being targeted, so why wouldn't she essentially give Pakistan a taste of her own medicine by not targeting Mehsud? Of course this seems quite juvenile, and hurts both sides and increases distrust...

Just food for thought to take the discussion in a different direction.

 

[muse]

AM

the Issue of a single US commander is perhaps indicative of the Pakistani concerns - too many commanders and commands - CIA has it's war, the Army another and the charge against Pakistan is that ISI has it's war and the Fauj another.

Signals, if I understand them correctly, suggest a new direction for the US with regard to Pakistan and the US involvment in Afghanistan - this new direction, it remains to be seem, the substance of which might be greater willingness to consider Pakistani interests in Afghanistan - however; near term events and outcomes may allow a more conclusive analysis. Pakistanis will certainly be monitoring terror camps in Afghanistan for clues to gauge the US "direction"

TTP did not just pop up, it has been around in some form for a long time, at one time as a pro-govt conglomerate.

A publication of Westpoint, Sentinel, in it's very first issue has a piece about TTP and it's history.

Something else must happen, To suggest that Baitullah ( a most improbable name) is alive because the US did not stike at him, overlooks the point that Pakistan must do it's own killing, for it's own purposes.

I don't about others but I am less than happy with the performance of the Fauj, 900 dead Talib is a faltry figure given what we understand to be the numbers of Talib/AQ and others present.