Claiming that "the safety of people around the world is at stake", Barack Obama has laid out his strategy for Afghanistan that includes dramatically increased military operations inside of Pakistan.On Friday, Obama called the mountainous Pakistani side of the Afghan border "the most dangerous place in the world" and reaffirmed the U.S. view that in order for the war in Afghanistan to be successful, the U.S. military would have to go after al-Qaeda forces in Pakistan.
Obama also added the following during his Friday speech: "Let me be clear: al-Qaeda and its allies -- the terrorists who planned and supported the 9/11 attacks -- are in Pakistan and Afghanistan."
This comes on the heels of the announcement that 4,000 more U.S. troops will be sent to Afghanistan, in addition to the 17,000 increase that had already been announced.
Obama's plan also includes a goal of boosting the Afghan army from 80,000 to 134,000 troops by 2011.
The U.K. is also now offering its full backing for a comprehensive military campaign inside of Pakistan.
In fact, U.K. defense secretary John Hutton says that there must now be “an equal focus on both countries”. Current government plans call for the U.K. to send an additional 2,000 British troops to Afghanistan.
Up until now, most people in both the U.S. and the U.K. have mistakenly believed that their governments were only involved in two wars - in Iraq and in Afghanistan. However, the truth is that both governments have been deeply involved in a covert war against Islamic militants inside Pakistan that has been going on for quite some time now.
The reality is that U.S. special forces based in Afghanistan have been carrying out regular missions into Pakistan’s tribal areas since early September 2008. The New York Times even goes so far as to call what was happening as a "covert war run by the Central Intelligence Agency inside Pakistan" - and if even the New York Times is admitting it, then the U.S. government is not even really trying to hide it anymore.
But it is not just U.S. forces that are deeply involved in the covert war inside Pakistan. A stunning report has revealed that British agents colluded in the torture of Pakistani terrorism suspects by the ISI inside Pakistan. Officially the British government is "against torture", but apparently they have no problem letting ISI agents torture the living daylights out of Islamic militants while they watch.
In addition, it has now been revealed that the CIA was covertly using the Shamsi airfield in Pakistan (which is 30 miles INSIDE the Pakistani border) to launch operations against targets within Pakistan.
Wow.
How could the U.S. deny that they were at war inside Pakistan when they are using bases inside Pakistan to launch attacks on Pakistani soil? Well, with the newest announcements by Obama, the U.S. is not even trying to deny it anymore.
The U.S. is at war inside of Pakistan.
However, at the same time the U.S. has expanded their war against Islamic militants, the central government in Pakistan is seeking to appease them.
In a very curious move, the Pakistani government is promising to impose Islamic law and to suspend military operations against extremists in areas known to be havens for terrorist organizations.
Now why in the world would the Pakistani government be doing that?
It seems that the goals of the Pakistani government are directly opposed to the goals of the U.S. and the U.K. at this point.
So what will come of all this? Nobody really knows, but for now it seems that the U.S. is quite determined to escalate the war in Pakistan.
Just what the American taxpayers need - another costly war to pay for.
Has American become the policeman of the world?
Well, it may not be the entire world yet, but you can add Pakistan to the list of countries where the American military has boots on the ground.
