What's new

US Defense Secretary Panetta threatens ground intervention into Pakistan

Status
Not open for further replies.

t-birds

FULL MEMBER
Joined
Sep 27, 2007
Messages
323
Reaction score
0
US Defense Secretary Panetta threatens ground intervention into Pakistan

By Alex Lantier
US Defense Secretary Panetta threatens ground intervention into Pakistan :: www.uruknet.info :: informazione dal medio oriente :: information from middle east :: [gd]

June 8, 2012

Source
US Defense Secretary Panetta threatens ground intervention into Pakistan

Speaking in Kabul yesterday, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta threatened Pakistan with a ground intervention if it did not crush forces in Pakistan fighting US occupation troops in Afghanistan.

Panetta singled out the so-called Haqqani network, a militia in Pakistan’s North Waziristan region that mounts raids on US forces across the Afghan-Pakistani border. He said, "Haqqani safe havens still exist on the other side of the border. Pakistan has to take action [to stop] allowing terrorists in their country to attack our forces on the other side of the border. We are reaching the limits of our patience here."

He continued, "It is difficult to achieve a secure Afghanistan as long as there is a safe haven for terrorists in Pakistan from which they can conduct attacks on our forces. … The United States will do whatever we have to do to protect our forces."

Asked if the US might send ground troops from Afghanistan to attack targets in Pakistan, Panetta refused to rule it out. "I’m not going to go into particulars," he said. "It’s about protecting our forces and trying to urge the Pakistanis to take the steps they have to take to control the situation."

Panetta spoke alongside Afghan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak, who called for joint action by the US-backed Afghan puppet regime and the Pakistani government in Islamabad. "I do hope," he said, "that gradually they will come to the conclusion to cooperate with us. If that cooperation starts, we will be able to disrupt their command and control, disrupt their training, disrupt their weapon recruitment and also will be able to eliminate or capture their leadership. Without doing that, I think our endeavor to achieve victory will become much more difficult."

Panetta’s trip to Kabul was part of a larger Asian tour that also took him to Singapore, Vietnam, and India—part of the US "pivot" towards deploying the majority of its armed forces in the Asia-Pacific region in order to confront China.

While in New Delhi, Panetta said he was going to Kabul to be briefed by the top US commander in Afghanistan, Marine General John Allen, to see how confident Allen felt about facing the threat to US operations from the Taliban and Haqqani network forces.

The Pentagon is preparing for an initial withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan when the Obama administration scales down the "surge" of troops it began in 2009. Some 23,000 US troops are set to leave Afghanistan by the end of September, leaving about 68,000 in the country.

Panetta’s inflammatory comments in Kabul highlight the reckless and aggressive character of his tour and Washington’s broader policy in the region. Designed to assemble a US-led anti-China coalition in Asia, Panetta’s tour began with a prominent visit to India—China’s main competitor in the region and a bitter rival of Pakistan. Declining to visit Pakistan, Panetta flew directly to Kabul, where he threatened Pakistan, China’s main ally in South Asia, with new attacks.

US officials have repeatedly alleged that Pakistan works with the Haqqani network, which is led by Jalaluddin Haqqani, an asset of US and Pakistani intelligence during the 1980s Soviet-Afghan war. Admiral Mike Mullen described the Haqqani network as a "virtual arm" of Pakistani intelligence at congressional hearings last year.

The US has responded with an escalating series of drone attacks in Afghan-Pakistani border regions, with eight strikes in Pakistan’s northwest frontier areas in the last two weeks alone. US defense officials told the Christian Science Monitor yesterday that "the recent increase in drone strikes on insurgents in Pakistan is due in part to frustration with Islamabad."

This follows the revelation in a May 29 New York Times article that President Obama personally selects targets for assassination by drone attack in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, drawing up a "kill list" on "Terror Tuesday" meetings with military and intelligence officials. (See: Obama’s role in the selection of drone missile targets). Adult male victims of drone attacks are automatically counted as "militants" so as to decrease the number of civilians listed as killed by US operations.

Islamabad has so far refused to launch a military assault on North Waziristan along the lines of the 2009 assaults it carried out under pressure from Washington in the Swat Valley, Lower Dir and Buner districts. This attack displaced millions of Pakistanis from their homes—the largest exodus of civilians in the Indian subcontinent since the 1947 partition of British India to form the states of India and Pakistan. Pakistani officials have reportedly told Washington they cannot attack North Waziristan for fear of unleashing an uncontrollable tribal war.

Pakistani officials fear rising domestic opposition to their ties to the US and their collaboration with Washington’s "war on terror." Since the beginning of last year, US-Pakistani relations have been roiled by a series of US provocations: the fatal shooting of two Pakistanis in Lahore in January 2011 by CIA contractor Raymond Davis, who was released by Islamabad; Washington’s violation of Pakistani sovereignty in May 2011 in a cross-border raid to assassinate Osama bin Laden; and a November 2011 US raid on a Pakistani border post that killed 24 soldiers.

With popular outrage in Afghanistan and Pakistan mounting over US strikes, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay ended a four-day visit to Pakistan yesterday in an attempt to defuse the situation. She commented, "Drone attacks do raise serious questions about compliance with international law. … I see the indiscriminate killings and injuries of civilians in any circumstances as human rights violations."

Pillay had no intention of trying to end Washington’s escalating terror campaign of assassination by drone, however. She did not even call for a halt to the attacks, but stressed "the importance of investigating such cases and ensuring compensation and redress to the victims."

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton responded by saying that the US would not abandon drone attacks, cynically claiming that the US seeks to "ensure precision and avoid the loss of innocent life."

In fact, the indiscriminate and criminal character of the US policy of assassination is inherent in its very method—targeting individual leaders in tribal areas of Pakistan or Afghanistan with powerful Hellfire missiles, which destroy entire villages.
 
His statements are going to infuriate the local Pakistani more and more - thereby increasing Anti-American sentiments among the low & working class. He needs to tone down with the threats.
 
Good for us if this ****ing idiot continue his ***** BS! ZIONIKUTA!

People must understand the purpose of 500 - 750 kmh missiles!! LOL who are with in range from Gulf of Oman - Afghanistan!
 
Is a dog barking? :blah:
 
Is a dog barking? :blah:
can US cut the leash and release the dog into a Taliban stronghold? :lol: Let's see how fast it can run when in danger.

Good for us if this ****ing idiot continue his ***** BS! ZIONIKUTA!

People must understand the purpose of 500 - 750 kmh missiles!! LOL who are with in range from Gulf of Oman - Afghanistan!
But in Panetta's eyes, Pakistan is just another Iraq and Afghanistan, it's very easy to invade..:pop:
 
Why not! but lets settle the account books, i believe Pakistan has sent request to US to clear backlogs, and that shall be addressed first before any other discussion.
 
If they want to do ground incursion then what’s the hold up?

Also why are the begging us to open the supply they must think that they are somehow entitled to transport weapons and equipment over our land only to attack us!

America is dying super power and these signs of the last gasps before their final fall
 
What do they say about barking dogs ? :azn:

Desperately issuing statements will not do the trick for you ! :P

P.S Next time Panetta , do not threaten a country which you are begging to open routes for you and every other day your officials request to co operate in Afghanistan ! Makes you look like a bi polar !
 
my my, Panetta has being barking out loud for quite sometime now on his Asian tour!
 
Any ground intervention can spiral into major stand off between US and Pakistan. I think US know what they are doing...:smokin:
 
Panetta's statements are just a clever bit of American PR: Sticks followed by Carrots.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom