I have argued before, vehemently and without success, that the Democratic commitment to the continued occupation in Afghanistan, is as criminal as the Republican commitment to the occupation in Iraq. The only difference that I can see is that we had a better excuse to go into Afghanistan, and we are apparently sticking to it after 7 years of a counterproductive occupation.
Today this occupation showed signs of expanding into a cross-border war along the lines of the expansion of US operations during the Vietnam War into Laos and Cambodia. With the exception that instead of Laos, we are expanding the war into nuclear armed Pakistan.
Follow me after the fold for some Great Game fun.
As you may have heard, Pakistan is a little miffed that US air strikes have killed 11 Pakistani soldiers in the border region with Afghanistan. But, this being the Great Game, half the fun is reconstructing what happened.
According to preliminary media reports, which are sure to change as the official version is settled upon and communicated to the free press, there are at least five versions of what happened:
First, there are two American versions:
-
In Washington, a Pentagon official said there was an airstrike during an incursion by insurgents into Afghanistan from Pakistan. The aircraft launched an airstrike under a policy that allows coalition forces to cross into Pakistan if they are in hot pursuit of a target, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record.
The ever helpful unbiased editor feels necessary to actually go farther at this point, to maintain the presumption of American innocence:
But it was not clear if the aircraft actually crossed into Pakistan.
Just the missiles then?
Here are the facts as admitted by the US:
U.S. officials confirmed that three aircraft launched about a dozen bombs following a clash between Taliban militants and Afghan and U.S.-led coalition forces late Tuesday. Pakistan says the strikes killed 11 of its paramilitary troops.
- However,
In a statement issued from Afghanistan, the coalition said it had retaliated after its forces came under small arms and rocket-propelled grenade fire about 200 yards inside Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province during an operation that had been "previously coordinated" with Pakistan. The coalition fired artillery, and then using drones to locate more "anti-Afghan forces," launched airstrikes "until the threat was eliminated. The coalition said that it had informed the Pakistan army that it was being attacked from a wooded area near the Pakistani checkpoint at Gorparai — where the Pakistani Frontier Corps troops were killed.
Now both of these, while contradictory when put right next to each other like that, still show that the Americans kick ass and owe nobody any apologies. We've been using air strikes more and more as the war drags on, and this trend will only continue as time goes on. Still, the results speak for themselves. Militants are getting killed all over the place, or if not, at least surly brown people. Once the Obama surge hits the ground, we should be seeing a lot more of these.
Still, to be on the safe side, here's an apology from the nearest US Embassy fortified compound, to soothe the brown people:
"The United States regrets that actions in Mohmand agency on the night of June 10 resulted in the reported casualties among Pakistani forces who are our partners in the fight against terrorism," a U.S. Embassy statement said. It expressed condolences to the families of the dead.
Apparently the actual condolences were too lenghty and boring to be reported in full.
- However, these particular brown people appear to have some sort of military structure of their own, and, what's worse, unlike the Iraqi or Afghan resistance, access to our media.
Pakistan army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas denied the insurgents attacked from Pakistan or that there had been any attack launched from the Gorparai post. He also denied the coalition had given prior notice of its operation in the area.
He said the fighting broke out Tuesday after Afghan troops tried to set up a mountaintop post in a contested part of the lawless frontier and Pakistani security forces told them to withdraw.
The Afghan forces "were on their way back and they were attacked by insurgents in their own territory," he said, adding that Afghans had called in coalition airstrikes which hit the Pakistani Frontier Corps troops across the border.
- Now let's hear from some eyewitnesses on the ground:
Local tribesman Damagh Khan Mohmand said Afghan forces moved into the area around Speena Sooka, or White Peak, on Monday evening and were supported by foreign troops. There was no confirmation of that from the U.S.-led coalition or NATO security force in Afghanistan.
Khan Mohmand said tribesmen traded fire with the Afghan and foreign forces, and said Pakistani security forces also opened fire — although the military disputed that.
Khan Mohmand said he saw drones and that two aircraft had bombed several locations.
- And now from the insurgents themselves:
Maulvi Umar, a spokesman for an umbrella group of Pakistani Taliban, said militants had resisted an incursion into Pakistan.
He said between 60 and 100 of its fighters attacked NATO and Afghan army troops who had set up bunkers and tents on Pakistani soil. He claimed up to 40 Afghan troops were killed, several captured and that a NATO helicopter was shot down. Eight Taliban troops also died in the fighting, he said.
Just to make sure nobody buys this vile nonsense, the editor adds in:
None of his claims could be independently confirmed.
The US claims, on the other hand, both of them, though contradictory to each other, need no confirmation, being spoken by white people.
There is a sixth version from our ever helpful Afghan allies, who guessed that:
The Afghan interior ministry spokesman, Zemeri Bashary, put the death toll at 31 and insisted most were foreign fighters.
Khalid Farooqi, a politician from Paktika, eastern Afghanistan, said more than nine civilians were also killed. He said the operation apparently targeted the militant commander Mullah Mohammad Nabi and fighters who served under him.
I'm not even getting into the disupted civilian casualty counts. But as we all know, in a battle with terrorists, some collateral damage is to be expected, especially when the accepted tactics in that battle include lobbing twelve Hellfire missiles into a populated area as a sort of prophylactic mouthwashing action after an engagement. If you want some pictures of what we did, and some hilarious only in America commentary along the lines of "Look at them camel jockeys get it!" look here.
The context for this is that Pakistan concluded a peace treaty with the particular Islamic militants in this region on May 28, and the US does not like it. The disputed region between Afghanistan and Pakistan has never really even been mapped properly, the British just drew some arbitrary lines on their way out. The result is that, in additoin to the Taliban dominated provinces of Afghanistan proper, there is now a lawless region, periodically patrolled by tribal levies, the Pakistani Frontier Corps, which is a paramlitary formation made up of local tribesmen, Pakistani Taliban, Afghani Taliban, Afghani Army forces, who are apparently now feeling confident enough to start setting up mountaintop fortresses there (a sign of progress no doubt), US Special Forces, and of course, above in the sky, American Predator drones looking for targets. While before, hopeful talk about forthcoming Pakistani cooperation usually followed any mention of this intractable problem, it has become quite clear that Pakistan has no further intention to lose its people fighting our wars. They made their peace treaties and withdrew, except for the Frontier Corpos, which we are now apparently treating as just more brown people with guns that can be targeted.
Now given all these developments, I want to see what sort of peacenik weakling who has probably forgotten who attacked us on 9/11, would say that this is not a recipe for success, and that Obama's policy of increasing the number of troops in this campaign is not going to win this for us. Perhaps this diary should be an action item, asking all of us to write to Obama and ask that he promise to commit more drones and more US soldiers to this region when he gets into office. Because this is where Osama lives, that's why! And tha's how you win elections in the US, by supporting bloody unwinnable wars.
Update: It's always fun wathcing the evolution of a story in the controlled media.
In a separate incident early Wednesday, up to 60 Taliban militants were killed or injured when Afghan troops backed by NATO air support targeted them in the eastern province of Kunar, a provincial police chief said.
The Kunar police chief, Abdul Jalal Jalalm, could not specifically say how many rebels had died or were injured but, "according to information 17 bodies were taken to Pakistan."
"The Taliban had gathered in Sarkano district. We and the NATO forces targeted them from ground and air. About 60 Taliban were killed and injured," he told AFP.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed told AFP by telephone from an unknown location that nine rebels were slain, mostly in air strikes, but he said the movement also inflicted heavy casualties on the troops.
His claims have proved to be exaggerated in the past.
The only way to recoginze the previously reported incident from this summary are the locations and the figure of 9 Taliban casualties given by the Talliban spokesman. Bodies were taken to Pakistan is all that remains from an incursion into Pakistani terroritory with Pakistani soldiers kiiled.