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Mike needs to cut down on the absolutist rhetoric. It's been a problem for him the whole time I've known him.
Gravest emergency? Oh, it can get worse - like if 9/11 is allowed to stand. It's exposure would be a very constructive "distraction" and possibly help shift power balances in just the way we need.
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Meanwhile, for all the hope of the first couple of days, there was the counterpoint of the Predator strikes in Pakistan.
Guardian says Obama gave go-ahead:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/24/pakist...
[quote][b]President orders air strikes on villages in tribal area[/b]
Ewen MacAskill in Washington
The Guardian, Saturday 24 January 2009
Article history
Barack Obama gave the go-ahead for his first military action yesterday, missile strikes against suspected militants in Pakistan which killed at least 18 people.
Four days after assuming the presidency, he was consulted by US commanders before they launched the two attacks. Although Obama has abandoned many of the "war on terror" policies of George Bush while he was president, he is not retreating from the hunt for Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaida leaders.
The US believes they are hiding in the tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan, and made 30 strikes last year in which more than 200 people were killed. In the election, Obama hinted at increased operations in Pakistan, saying he thought Bush had made a mistake in switching to Iraq before completing the job against al-Qaida in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The US marine corp commander said yesterday that his 22,000 troops should be redeployed from Iraq to Afghanistan. Gen James Conway said "the time is right" to leave Iraq now the war had become largely nation-building rather than the pitched fighting in which the corps excelled; he wanted the marines in Afghanistan, especially in the south where insurgents, and the Taliban and al-Qaida, benefit from both a nearby safe haven in Pakistan and a booming trade in narcotics.
Obama has warned that he is prepared to bomb inside Pakistan if he gets relevant intelligence about the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden. He had also said he would act against militants along the border if the Pakistan government failed to.
The US missiles were fired by unmanned Predator drones, which hang in the sky gathering intelligence through surveillance and, when commanded and directed by remote control, to launch attacks.
The strikes will help Obama portray himself as a leader who, though ready to shift the balance of American power towards diplomacy, is not afraid of military action.
The first attack yesterday was on the village of Zharki, in Waziristan; three missiles destroyed two houses and killed 10 people. One villager told Reuters of phonethat of nine bodies pulled from the rubble of one house, six were its owner and his relatives; Reuters added that intelligence officials said some foreign militants were also killed. A second attack hours later also in Warizistan killed eight people.
The Pakistan government publicly expressed hope that the arrival of Obama would see a halt to such strikes, which stir up hostility from Pakistanis towards the government; in private, the government may be more relaxed about such attacks.
There is a lot of nervousness in the new administration about the fragility of Pakistan, particularly as it has nuclear weapons, but it also sees Afghanistan and Pakistan as being linked. In the face of a Taliban resurgence, there is despair in Washington over the leadership of the Afghan leader, Hamid Karzai, and there will not be much disappointment if he is replaced in elections later this year.
But Washington insists on seeing as one of its biggest problems the ability of the Taliban and al-Qaida to maintain havens in Pakistan. Obama on Thursday announced he was making veteran diplomat Richard Holbrooke a special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan. The secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, spoke by phone to the Pakistan president, Asif Ali Zardari.[/quote]
Please note: [b]I find it very unlikely that Obama wasn't a full cheerleader on these strikes.[/b] But no WH statement has been forthcoming, despite what the Guardian says. A source is only implied: "commanders." The strikes are part of an ongoing covert program involving 30 strikes in the last year and at least 100 civilians killed (according to the Pakistani military). There is also the precedent of Bay of Pigs or Somalia -- Pentagon roping into immediate military involvements a new president who by virtue of being Democratic is considered soft or potentially disloyal. (I know that it sounds ridiculous to you, RI readers, but you're not a Pentagon hardliner are you now?)
[b]The WH is going to be forced into a statement on this soon, given Pakistan's reaction.[/b]
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5...
[quote][b]Pakistan urges Obama to halt missile attacks[/b]
By ASIF SHAHZAD – 3 hours ago
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan urged President Barack Obama to halt U.S. missile strikes on al-Qaida strongholds near the Afghan border, saying Saturday that civilians were killed the previous day in the first attacks since Obama's inauguration.
Pakistani security officials said eight suspected foreign militants, including an Egyptian al-Qaida operative, were among 22 people killed in Friday's twin strikes in the Waziristan region.
But the Foreign Ministry said that the attacks by unmanned aircraft also killed an unspecified number of civilians and that it had informed U.S. officials of its "great concern."
"With the advent of the new U.S. administration, it is Pakistan's sincere hope that the United States will review its policy and adopt a more holistic and integrated approach toward dealing with the issue of terrorism and extremism," a ministry statement said.
"We maintain that these attacks are counterproductive and should be discontinued," it said.
Pakistani leaders complain that stepped-up missile strikes — there have been more than 30 since August — fan anti-American sentiment and undermine the government's own efforts to counter Islamist militants.
[b]But their protests have had few practical consequences, fueling speculation that Islamabad's cash-strapped, pro-U.S. government has given tacit approval in return for political and financial support from Washington.
[/b]
[b]Obama has not commented on the missile strike policy.
[/b]
However, he has made the war in Afghanistan and the intertwined al-Qaida fight in Pakistan an immediate foreign policy priority. Few observers expect him to ditch a tactic that U.S. officials say has killed a string of militant leaders behind the insurgency in Afghanistan — [b]and who were perhaps plotting terrorist attacks in the West.[/b][/quote]
NOTE: Perhaps is good enough to kill them and 100 bystanders. Is that sort of what the New York Police Department was doing with Sean Bell?)
[quote]Three intelligence officials told The Associated Press that funerals were held Saturday for nine Pakistanis killed Friday in Zharki, a village in the North Waziristan region.
The officials, citing reports from field agents and residents, said Taliban fighters had earlier removed the bodies of five suspected foreign militants who also died in the first missile strike Friday. Initial reports put the death toll from that attack at 10.
A senior security official in the capital, Islamabad, identified one of the slain men as a suspected al-Qaida operative called Mustafa al-Misri. He said it was unclear if the man was a significant figure.
The second strike hit a house in the South Waziristan region. Residents and security officials say eight people died in the village of Gangi Khel.
[b]Resident Allah Noor Wazir said he attended funerals for the owner of the targeted house, Din Faraz, his three sons and a guest.
[/b]
"I also heard that three bodies had been taken away by Taliban. They say they belong to foreigners," Wazir told the AP by telephone.
The security officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
The United States does not directly acknowledge firing the missiles, which are believed to be mostly fired from drones operated by the CIA and launched from neighboring Afghanistan.
[b]Pakistan's government has little control over the border region, which is considered a likely hiding place for al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden and other terrorist leaders.[/b]*
While protesting the missile strikes, Pakistan's government on Saturday also welcomed Obama's decision to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.
A Foreign Ministry statement Saturday said the move was a step toward "upholding the primacy of the rule of law" and would add a "much-needed moral dimension in dealing with terrorism."
Pakistan helped the United States round up hundreds of militants in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, including several al-Qaida leaders still incarcerated at Guantanamo.
Associated Press writer Munir Ahmad contributed to this report.[/quote]
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- again, recall Prince Turki interview yesterday giving a tacit imprimatur to US action there by guaranteeing OBL is there.
My impression of the Pakistani authorities is that they are not at all happy with this situation, or giving any willing "tacit" approval. Normally there'd be a tension between the new civilian govt under Zardari and the military, but if you saw the military spokesman yesterday on CNN, you'd have heard a very clear condemnation of the US action.
[b]What does China have to say on all this?[/b]
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-01/25/conte...
[quote][b]Pak president protests against U.S. missile strikes [/b]
www.chinaview.cn 2009-01-25 00:17:03
ISLAMABAD, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari Saturday protested over U.S. missile strikes on the tribal regions and said that such strikes were counterproductive, according to local press reports.
[b]The private NNI news agency quoted official sources as saying that Zardari told U.S. ambassador N.W. Patterson that the drone attacks could affect the war on terror.
Zardari made it clear to the U.S. envoy that only Pakistani security forces had the right to act against the militants, according to the report. [/b]
He hoped that the new U.S. administration would stop missile strikes on the tribal regions, adding that the Pakistani democratic government was under tremendous pressure due to the issue, it said.
[b]The Pakistani parliament has adopted a unanimous resolution which clearly says that any U.S. and NATO attacks would be considered as attack on the country's sovereignty.[/b]
[b]Zardari was quoted as saying that the Pakistani government is holding dialogue with those militants who give up weapons and accept the writ of the government, saying that multi-pronged policies have proved fruitful in the tribal regions. [/b]
Meanwhile, in a brief story, the official APP news agency only reported that the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan had a luncheon meeting with Zardari here Saturday and current regional situation and bilateral issues came under discussion.
Around 20 people were killed Friday in two separate missile strikes from drones in South and North Waziristan of Pakistan.
The strikes were the first since U.S. President Barack Obama took office and came one day after he appointed a veteran diplomat as his special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan. Pakistani
Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has sent out an invitation to the newly-appointed special envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke to visit Pakistan.
Editor: Yan[/quote]
The fact that a butcher like Holbrooke's been sent to this region indicates that it's a hot spot and priority. (Otherwise a defuser-type like Mitchell would have been sent.)
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