Pakistani Officials Fear the Taliban Will Be Emboldened By Obama’s Withdrawal Plans
Pakistani officials are worried that Obama’s plan to leave Afghanistan in 18 months will embolden the Taliban.
Dawn reported:
ISLAMABAD: President Barack Obama’s troop surge in Afghanistan has sparked fears in Pakistan it will lead to more US drone attacks and military involvement in its border areas, possibly further destabilising Washington’s ally.
Many Pakistan analysts and security officials fear an emboldened Afghan Taliban could then capitalise on Obama’s plans to start withdrawing troops in 18 months by waiting it out in Pakistan, which already faces militants on its own soil.
The Pakistan government has cautiously welcomed Obama’s plans to send another 30,000 troops to battle a strengthening Taliban insurgency. But it came with a caveat – Islamabad warned Washington on Wednesday of the need to avoid ‘adverse fallout.’
The concern for many is that when extra US troops land in south Afghanistan the Taliban will just make a tactical retreat across the porous border to Pakistan’s lawless tribal regions.
That would up the stakes in Pakistan where its army has launched an offensive in the border region of South Waziristan.
The campaign has already sparked a backlash of suicide attacks in cities, raising fears for the country’s stability.
With the Afghan winter traditionally making guerrilla warfare harder, there is effectively one fighting season left – the summer of 2010 – before US troops may start to scale down.
Pakistan analysts say that next summer US military planners primed for war may get increasingly frustrated they cannot bring the battle to a Taliban just sitting across the border.
‘In that survival game, the Taliban may cross into Pakistan. Now there is a timetable, they might just avoid combat,’ said Tanvir Ahmed Khan, a former Pakistani foreign secretary and now chairman of the Institute of Strategic Studies.
‘If that comes true, the Americans would be really tempted to go after them at a scale we haven’t seen before, mostly likely with drones and perhaps also with special operations.’
‘We think giving the timeline of 2011 is not a wise decision because if the Taliban are wise enough they will stop fighting for now and they will wait for US, forces to withdraw and then play havoc,’ a senior Pakistan government security official said.
December 3rd, 2009 | 12:29 pm | #1
So the average Paki is smarter than your average Progressive Democrat.
December 3rd, 2009 | 12:38 pm | #2
duh
Apparently no matter how often you repeat it, the average progressive is too stupid to realize that these people are patient. They don’t care how long, they have to be happier than pigs in sh## to have a timeline.
December 3rd, 2009 | 12:39 pm | #3
WOW, even the POCK-istanis are smart enough to see a fraud for what it is.
December 3rd, 2009 | 1:10 pm | #4
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December 3rd, 2009 | 1:45 pm | #5
[...] Gateway Pundit – Pakistani Officials: Obama’s 2011 Withdrawal Timeline “Is Not a Wise Decision” [...]
December 3rd, 2009 | 1:59 pm | #6
“So the average Paki is smarter than your average Progressive Democrat.” Was there ever any doubt?
December 3rd, 2009 | 2:38 pm | #7
It appears Obama is using the same internet as the Jihadi boys. But instead of uploading You Tube videos like they do, he is using it to fill them full of false hope. We won’t be able to get out of there early like he claims!
Just disinformation is all it is.
December 3rd, 2009 | 2:55 pm | #8
islams quizling
December 3rd, 2009 | 2:57 pm | #9
So maybe the Pakis ought to get off their little brown asses and do something… eh? How about wiping Waziristan off the face of the Earth for starters? It is now and always has been a nest of rabid animals. They need to be put down for the good of the rest of the planet.
December 3rd, 2009 | 3:45 pm | #10
i guess they’re assuming obama is capable of
making a wise decision.
December 3rd, 2009 | 3:58 pm | #11
Jug-eared, lunatic four-flusher
December 3rd, 2009 | 4:10 pm | #12
From Fox News, the statement of General Stanley McChrystal regarding President Obama’s speech on his Afghanistan strategy.
“The Afghanistan-Pakistan review led by the President has provided me with a clear military mission and the resources to accomplish our task. The clarity, commitment and resolve outlined in the President’s address are critical steps toward bringing security to Afghanistan and eliminating terrorist safe havens that threaten regional and global security.
The NATO International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) objective is equally clear: We will work toward improved security for Afghanistan and the transfer of responsibility to Afghan security forces as rapidly as conditions allow. In the meantime, our Afghan partners need the support of Coalition forces while we grow and develop the capacity of the Afghan army and police. That will be the main focus of our campaign in the months ahead.
The 42 other nations of the Coalition will benefit from a strengthened U.S. commitment, as success in Afghanistan must be an international, integrated civil-military effort – from our security and training capacity to the governance and economic development assistance that sustains long-term stability. The concerted commitment of the international community will prevail in bringing real change to Afghanistan — a secure and stable environment that allows for effective governance, improved economic opportunity and the freedom of every Afghan to choose how they live.
We face many challenges in Afghanistan, but our efforts are sustained by one unassailable reality: neither the Afghan people nor the international community want Afghanistan to remain a sanctuary for terror and violence. The coalition is encouraged by President Obama’s commitment and we remain resolute to empowering the Afghan people to reject the insurgency and build their own future.”
December 3rd, 2009 | 4:27 pm | #13
We won. We using street smarts, not book smarts.
December 3rd, 2009 | 4:52 pm | #14
Kudos to Commander in Chief Obama for doubling the troops in Afghanistan in his first year already (not counting the additional committed to last night).
Bush never took Afghanistan seriously, and that’s reflected in the numbers of boots on the ground before Obama.
December 3rd, 2009 | 5:22 pm | #15
++
via a friend via Rush Limbaugh
Imagine if Mullah Omar Announced
Taliban Has Plan to Retreat in 2011
==
December 3rd, 2009 | 5:28 pm | #16
++
December 22, 2008 Myth 4:
The war in Iraq caused us to “take our eye
off the ball” in Afghanistan and with al Qaeda.
Reality:
Iraq and Afghanistan are two fronts in the same war, and while the success of the surge in Iraq has been visible, we have also had a quiet surge in Afghanistan. The U.S. has continuously and aggressively fought side-by-side with Afghans and our allies to defeat the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan. The United States has provided nearly $32 billion for security, political, and economic development assistance and the international community has provided more than $55 billion to Afghanistan since 2001.
An additional U.S. Marine battalion deployed to Afghanistan in November and they will be followed by an Army combat brigade of about 3,400 troops in early 2009. U.S. forces now total approximately 31,000, and are joined by nearly as many coalition troops. The United States and our allies are working with Afghanistan to help it nearly double the size of the Afghan National Army over the next five years, from 79,000 now trained to 134,000 in 2014.
We have also deployed Provincial Reconstruction Teams to ensure security gains are followed by real improvements in daily life, and we have helped local communities strengthen their economies and create jobs, deliver basic services, improve governance and fight corruption, and build or repair key infrastructure such as roads, bridges, hospitals, and schools. More than six million children, approximately two million of them girls, are now in Afghan schools, compared to fewer than one million in 2001.
In this Global War on Terror, we do not have the luxury to fight on one battlefront at a time. To defeat the terrorists, we must fight them overseas so we don’t have to fight them here at home. Since 9/11, we have successfully captured or killed dozens of al-Qaeda’s senior leadership and hundreds of al-Qaeda operatives in two dozen countries, removed al-Qaeda’s safe-haven in Afghanistan and crippled al-Qaeda in Iraq, and disrupted numerous al Qaeda terrorist plots against the U.S., including a 2006 plot to blow up passenger planes traveling from London.]
==
December 3rd, 2009 | 5:39 pm | #17
The idea as I deduce it is to get 30,000 troops out of America while Zero continues his Communist transformation and builds his two million ACORN/SEIU army. So there will be 30,000 fewer troops to help in the resistance and in 2011 he’ll bring home those who survive Afghanistan, too late to help Americans.
December 3rd, 2009 | 5:48 pm | #18
++
Mr. Define runs for president..
Obama interview from Afghanistan: 2008
Mr. Dithers went to Washington..
The Dreaded X
Mr. Death knows best..
US troop deaths in Afghanistan have nearly doubled under Barack Obama
==
December 3rd, 2009 | 6:22 pm | #19
Jim Beam
December 3rd, 2009 | 4:52 pm | #14
Kudos to Commander in Chief Obama for doubling the troops in Afghanistan in his first year already (not counting the additional committed to last night).
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Not bloody likely, leftoid drone. Obie came nowhere near “doubling” the forces in A-stan; and is now commiting an additional 30K.
Why don’t you provide some actual numbers to back up your assertion? I don’t believe that you’ll find them.
December 3rd, 2009 | 7:57 pm | #20
I´ve heard the usurper Mr. Obama speak at West Point, December 1, 2009, due to his Afghan war strategy, as well as, Secretary Clinton, Secretary Gates, and Admiral Mullen in the Senate, Armed Services Committee, December 2, 2009, defending their usurper, Mr. Obama, but non could explain, nor defend:
Mr. Obama flat out tells the Taliban, and al Qaeda that we will fight, but only until July, 2011.
I´ll bet the usurper in the White House plays Texas Hold´Em with all his cards face up. (It began January 20, 2009.)
December 3rd, 2009 | 8:05 pm | #21
chuck in st paul
December 3rd, 2009 | 2:57 pm | #9
So maybe the Pakis ought to get off their little brown asses and do something… eh? How about wiping Waziristan off the face of the Earth for starters? It is now and always has been a nest of rabid animals. They need to be put down for the good of the rest of the planet.
……………………..
MOBY.
Poseur commentary doesn’t work very well when one starts with one own projection stereotypes.
December 3rd, 2009 | 8:15 pm | #22
Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh came to Washington and SAID THE SAME THING, but the WHITE HOUSE AND the MEDIA jerked him around by spending their enabling time on WHite House dinner crashers, to the EXCLUSION of solid political reporting on the Afghanistan issues.
Singh is not stupid. They think he doesn’t know what kind of people they are by now? India is a US ALLY. Obama brushed India off, thinking a fancy curry dinner and a couple of cheesy “namastes” was sufficient when President Bush offered Singh nuclear and military strategic partnership.
WHat kind of luxury TENT can Obama rent to out-razzle-dazzle and wine and dine a guy who’s country houses the Taj Mahal – and that’s just for starters?
December 5th, 2009 | 8:37 am | #23
[...] 5, 2009 Posted by taoist in Afghanistan. Tags: Obama, Pakistan, Security, Terrorism trackback Yeah. Especially since Obama has no plans of leaving with a certain V-word [...]
December 5th, 2009 | 1:16 pm | #24
[...] Pakistani Officials: Obama’s 2011 Withdrawal Timeline “Is Not a Wise Decision” [...]
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