Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Khurasan!

All the cool kids know Land of the Pure's nation state motto could very well be sump like - "Hey y'all! Watch this!"

Now AFPAK Surge and
"...talk among many officers has shifted sharply from discussions of establishing Afghan democracy or a robust government to a more pragmatic and realistic military ambition: doing what can be done in the little time left. In the tactical sense, this translates to straightforward tasks for units in the security buffer along the border. 

While they still have their peak troop presence, American commanders are trying to bloody the strongest of the armed antigovernment groups and to put thousands more Afghan police officers and soldiers into contested areas. 
 Desperate to counter Drones Gone Wild's insatiable appetite for real time intell that has literally rained destruction on them -  al Qaeda, the Pakistani Taliban and the Haqqani network seduced their most ruthless fighters in 2009 to hook up and create the Khurasan unit, for especial missions to kill informants and deter replacements. 

The murderous elan of the Khaurasan has actually frightened PAK Army from venturing off base

“We face serious problems in areas where the Khurasan operate. We can’t leave our compounds and camps because they are on the lookout. We can’t risk an ambush.”
 Hot gossip that the Khaurasanies have gone rogue spark hot sticky whispers that ISI has been using them ala the Haqqi Bunch as a strategic arm
 
Since Land of the Pure's sovereignty dodge via the shadowy ISI precludes PAK Army - you know - actually like doing their gig how should Great Satan handle her only new clear frenemy army with a somewhat illiterate nation state attached?

1st to mind is NATO's Karachi connection.
In recent years NATO has made a concerted effort to redirect supplies via the Northern Distribution Network running through Russia and Central Asia. This forces us to rely on some morally dubious regimes, but, bad as Vladimir Putin and the rest are, at least they’re not actively killing Americans, as Pakistan’s proxies are. There is also the possibility of a massive airlift to get needed supplies into Afghanistan. A shutdown of Pakistan’s supply line would still sting, to be sure, but it need not cripple combat operations in Afghanistan, and we can continue to reduce our logistical vulnerabilities. In any case, cutting NATO’s supply line would also kill a cash cow for Pakistan and inflict damage on its already battered economy.
So we should not let fear of reaction deter us from dealing with the menace Pakistan poses. The administration quietly decided this summer to withhold $800 million out of the $2 billion in U.S. security assistance to Pakistan. There is also talk that at long last the United States will formally designate the Haqqani Network a terrorist organization, opening up a variety of financial and diplomatic sanctions. These are welcome steps, but they do not go far enough.
What more could be done? For one thing, we could mount more unilateral strikes, using drones or Special Operations Forces against Afghan Taliban and Haqqani targets within Pakistan. The towns of Quetta and Miram Shah​—​headquarters, respectively, of the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqanis​—​have been off-limits to our Predators because we didn’t want to offend the Pakistanis.
That concern may be changing now...

Pic - "Support for active U.S. military operations inside Pakistan has been growing in U.S. military and political circles"

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