Comments on: What To Do About Pakistan?

By: Brett

Brett — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 04:56:24 +0000

I almost wonder if the Pakistani Army is biding their time, thinking that they'll get some breathing space when (or if) the Taliban turns towards Afghanistan with the goal of reacting to the US military scale-up. Then again, that seems a little too competent and scheming for them; more likely, they just can't really do anything about them right now short of a massive, heavy-handed attack into the areas in question.

By: What The Hell Is Going On In Pakistan? « Around The Sphere

What The Hell Is Going On In Pakistan? « Around The Sphere — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 18:02:07 +0000

[...] http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/what_to_do_about_pakistan/ [...]

By: Tlaloc

Tlaloc — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 17:37:45 +0000

I'm pretty strongly non-interventionist in general. That said, if it looked like the Taliban was going to take Islamabad I'd support a limited duration mission to do the following:

1) Strike Taliban forces within Pakistan
2) Prevent Taliban forces from entering Islamabad while we try to thin out their numbers from the air
3) Take control of, and dismantle the Pakistan nuclear armaments. Pakistan can have a vote in this as soon as they have an actual government that can control their country. Remove all the critical components from Pakistan, basically take their nuclear program back to the planning stage.

After that we tell India that if they initiate a nuclear attack on Pakistan we will consider that an act of war (to keep some sense of detente in place between India and Pakistan).

We can't really keep Pakistan running, what we can do is buy time to make sure Pakistan's working nuclear arsenal and ballistic missile tech does not fall into Taliban hands.

By: markm

markm — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 17:25:06 +0000

Missed that little detail. As you were.

By: Dave Schuler

Dave Schuler — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 17:18:25 +0000

Let's put the whole quote from the Time article up for context:

When asked last year about the security of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Admiral Mike Mullen didn't hesitate: "I'm very comfortable that the nuclear weapons in Pakistan are secure," he said flatly. Asked the same question earlier this month, his answer had changed. "I'm reasonably comfortable," he said, "that the nuclear weapons are secure."

By: markm

markm — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 17:04:13 +0000

what is the U. S. willing to do to prevent Pakistan’s nuclear weapons from falling into the hands of the Pakistani Taliban and their Al Qaeda guests?

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1893685,00.html?xid=rss-topstories

"When asked last year about the security of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Admiral Mike Mullen didn't hesitate: "I'm very comfortable that the nuclear weapons in Pakistan are secure," he said flatly."

So there's that.

By: Dave Schuler

Dave Schuler — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 16:43:46 +0000

It looks like the Taliban are withdrawing from Buner

I think you might want to re-interpret that. The reports that I'm hearing suggest that the Taliban from other areas are withdrawing since they're no longer needed, leaving the the Taliban local to Buner in place and in control.

By: Brett

Brett — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 16:07:04 +0000

On second thought, maybe I'm wrong. It looks like the Taliban are withdrawing from Buner, for now at least. Maybe they over-extended themselves.

By: Brett

Brett — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 16:05:31 +0000

Reading Bill Rogio's reporting, it's . . . worse than I thought. I'm not at all convinced by the claims of the Pakistani government that the rangers being placed on the Marbala Hills will stop a Taliban advance to the doorstep of Islamabad, seeing as how other paramilitary groups under Pakistani control just got smacked around by the Taliban. Scary, isn't it? I was more or less certain that the Taliban would be on the doorstep of Islamabad at some point in Obama's first term (actually taking Islamabad would be another story), but I thought it probably would take the Taliban at least two years, since presumably the Army would actually put up some resistance to Taliban movement into the nuclear weapons-areas.

By: Michael

Michael — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 15:19:05 +0000

I still say we should pressure the Indian military to establish contacts with the Taliban, get them on film having a face to face meeting. Then let some obviously Indian supplied light weapons get "found" in a Taliban stash. If there is one thing that can unite Pakistanis, it's an Indian threat. Even those who would be sympathetic to the Taliban will turn against them if they think they're advancing India's ambitions. The only question is if the Taliban would be stupid enough to play along.

By: The Glittering Eye » Blog Archive » Foreign Policy Blogging at OTB

The Glittering Eye » Blog Archive » Foreign Policy Blogging at OTB — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 15:18:01 +0000

[...] morning I’ve published two foreign policy posts at OTB. In the first, What To Do About Pakistan?, I take note of Bill Roggio’s fine coverage of the deteriorating situation there and comment [...]