Pakistan Blinks, Opens Up Crossing For NATO Supplies

Well, that didn't take long! Hahaha. As I reported here just yesterday, the Pakistani government had shut down a vital crossing into Afghanistan where fuel and supplies flowed to NATO forces...and today, the Pakistanis backed down and reopened that crossing. Talk about wanting to be a fly on the wall in the Pakistani government's office yesterday! The phone calls from NATO commanders, U.S. officials and world leaders must have been a blitzkrieg!

Here's some of the details of the about-face from The Long War Journal article:

Pakistan has reopened the vital Torkham border crossing point to NATO supply trucks destined for Afghanistan. The crossing point was closed late on Sept. 5, the same day the Pakistani military threatened to retaliate against the US for conducting attacks against the Taliban and al Qaeda inside Paksitan.
Pakistan's defense minister said the border closure was meant to show the US that it would not tolerate airstrikes and raids inside its borders, Daily Times reported.
"We have told them that we will take action and we have already taken action today," Defense Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar said. "We have stopped the supply of oil and this will tell how serious we are."

I predicted that the Pakistanis would feel the wrath of the West over this decision and it is apparent that this government just has no balls. They have had no balls until recently to stand up to the Taliban and this immediate reversal shows they had none in this conviction.

What this should show the West is that we can fully push the envelope for more and more attacks inside of Pakistan and it is IMPERATIVE that we continue that assault. The War in Afghanistan is going to be won or lost in the North West Frontier Provinces of Pakistan and if NATO can successfully rout the Taliban and al Qaeda in that safe haven, it will completely turn this war around.

With just the right combination of air strikes in NW Pakistan along with special operations assaults, NATO could turn this winter into the Winter of Death to the Taliban.

Pakistan reopens vital border crossing to NATO

The US has recently stepped up attacks against Taliban and al Qaeda safe houses and training camps inside Pakistan's tribal areas of North and South Waziristan over the last week. The US has conducts five strikes in the Waziristans in the past week, including a controversial helicopter assault in a village along the border.
But other Pakistani officials are maintaining that the border crossing was closed due to a deteriorating security situation. Rahmin Malik, the advisor to Prime Minister Gilani on internal security, said the road was closed after members of the security forces protecting the road to Afghanistan were kidnapped.
"The NATO supplies were temporarily halted after around 20 soldiers of the Frontier Constabulary were captured by the militants in the area from where the supplies cross into Afghanistan," Malik told Dawn. "In fact, let me tell you that three trucks carrying NATO supplies were attacked en route to Afghanistan, compelling the government to secure the area."
An estimated 70 percent of NATO supplies move through Khyber to resupply troops fighting against the Taliban in Afghanistan. The bulk of NATO's supplies arrive in the port city of Karachi, move north to Peshawar, and head west to the Torkham crossing into Afghanistan and the final destination in Kabul. The rest of the supplies pass through the Chaman border crossing point in Baluchistan or arrive via air.
Scores of NATO supply trucks have been destroyed or damaged in Taliban attacks along the road through Khyber over the past year. The government launched an operation to clear the Lashkar-e-Islam, a local Taliban groups that controls much of the agency. The military ended the operation after 10 days, and signed a peace agreement with the group.