Thursday, October 14, 2010

U.S. Joint Chiefs' Mullen Says Pakistan's Military Is Ready For North Waziristan Offensive


Finally. After all of this time, it appears that the Pakistani military is finally going to lace up its boots, pull on its helmet and dive into the northwest agency of North Waziristan. I'm telling you, this could be one of the battles of all time in regards to the war against terrorists. U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Admiral Mullen, is saying that Pakistan's military head has committed to going into North Waziristan and rooting it out....and that is unbelievably awesome news.

From the article at DAWN:



US Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen said the Pakistani military has pledged to go after militants that the US wants targeted in the North Waziristan tribal region.

Mullen said Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Pervaiz Kayani has given assurances that he will mount an offensive in the tribal region along the Afghan border.

"He has committed to me to go into North Waziristan and to root out these terrorists as well," Mullen reportedly said in an interview on Bloomberg Television's "Conversations with Judy Woodruff" to be broadcast this weekend.

"He clearly knows what our priorities are…North Waziristan is the epicentre of terrorism," Mullen said.

"It's where al-Qaeda lives."
Now, we have seen the Pakistani military do a great job of gutting the Taliban out of the Swat Valley and also South Waziristan in the past year but North Waziristan is a whole 'nother kettle of fish. Anyone coming to Holger Awakens, even intermittently, is going to know about the number of U.S. drone attacks that come consistently in this agency - because that is where about 80% of al Qaeda hangs out and where some of the highest leaders in the Taliban are home-based. There are some that would say that North Waziristan currently houses Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri as well.

At the same time, its not going to be easy sledding in North Waziristan for the Pakistani military - not only are there a lot of al Qaeda and Taliban there, but they have been entrenched for a long time and one has to believe they can stay hunkered in there. One has to wonder though, once this offensive starts, if the bad guys in North Waziristan will take the most direct route out of that agency and scoot across the border into southern Afghanistan. Seems to me that this could be a field day for a squadron of AH-64's of our over in Afghanistan along with a JDAM festival.




‘Pakistan plans to target militants in North Waziristan’


WASHINGTON: US Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen said the Pakistani military has pledged to go after militants that the US wants targeted in the North Waziristan tribal region.

Mullen said Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Pervaiz Kayani has given assurances that he will mount an offensive in the tribal region along the Afghan border.

"He has committed to me to go into North Waziristan and to root out these terrorists as well," Mullen reportedly said in an interview on Bloomberg Television's "Conversations with Judy Woodruff" to be broadcast this weekend.

"He clearly knows what our priorities are…North Waziristan is the epicentre of terrorism," Mullen said.

"It's where al-Qaeda lives."

He further said that the objective was to defeat al-Qaeda and ensure Afghanistan would not again become a haven for the group.

Pakistan says its army is stretched by the fight against militants in six tribal regions and a flood that inundated a fifth of the country in July.

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