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Monday, November 16, 2009

Afghanistan Strategists Turn Focus to Pakistan - NYTimes.com

Afghanistan Strategists Turn Focus to Pakistan - NYTimes.com: "As the president traveled to Asia, his national security adviser, Gen. James L. Jones, was quietly sent to Islamabad, its capital.

His message, officials said, was that the new American strategy would work only if Pakistan broadened its fight beyond the militants attacking its cities and security forces and went after the groups that use havens in Pakistan for plotting and carrying out attacks against American troops in Afghanistan, as well as support networks for Al Qaeda."

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Today's forecast, a .10% (yes, that is a point in there) chance on Pak being able to do all that. That means, this so called "plan" of ours is more like a recipe for failure. Yes, that's obvious, so why present and publicly give this plan... to blame Pak when it fails or to pressure Pak to do it and then we take all the credit. Considering how much money we give Pak, it's not a bad deal for them if they decide to participate and manage to somehow succeed (see the .10% above).

This simply can't be the real plan. The real plan must be to give McChrystal the troops he asked for, and rely on him to win. In other words, nothing is really changing, and Obama waited all this time for... nothing. Maybe he really wanted to study the subject, and there's nothing wrong with that. Hopefully he will now trust his admirals and generals a little more.
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"Every time Mr. Obama declares that the United States will not have an “open-ended” military commitment in Afghanistan, he fuels a second concern of the powerful Pakistani military and intelligence establishment, which believes the United States commitment is fleeting.

It is a concern that some of them say justifies Pakistan’s continuing ties to the militants who fight American troops in Afghanistan."

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I feel your pain. However, terrorists left to live within Pak will fester. It would be better to eliminate them than let the wound spread. If Pak provides a safe haven for terrorists, then Pak may be the next Afghanistan.

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