Pakistan asks US to vacate Shamsi airbase within 15 days

[FarCenter]

Source: Dawn

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Saturday ordered the United States to vacate a controversial airbase within 15 days and closed Nato supply lines into Afghanistan permanently in response to a deadly cross-border Nato air strike.

The order refers to Shamsi, the remote desert outpost in southwest Pakistan reportedly used as a hub for covert CIA drone strikes, which Pakistan previously told the United States to leave in June.

Pakistan would also review all its diplomatic, military and intelligence activities with US and Nato.

The decision was taken at an extraordinary meeting of senior cabinet ministers and military service chiefs chaired by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, his office said.



Read more: http://www.dawn.com/2011/11/26/pakistan-asks-us-to-vacate-shamsi-airbase-within-15-days.html

[Bosonic]

1. If the US refuses to leave again it could be curtains for the current Pakistan gov

[FarCenter]

4. The current Pakistani government will not oppose the military

It has no credibility to do so after the memogate scandal. Haqqani, the former Abassador to the US has been placed on the Exit Control List to prevent his leaving the country.

Look at the http://www.thenews.com.pk/ and http://www.dawn.com web sites and try to find any support at all for the US, NATO, or the War on Terror.

[IDemo]

2. The US was also told to back off on the drones

Which have only increased in the meantime. I don't think the higher-ups give a rat's patootie what Pakistan has to say.

[FarCenter]

5. These attacks are reported to be by helicopters

Which decreases the credibility of a mistake.

[Angry Dragon]

3. Maybe if Obama gives them his Peace Prize they will be even

[DeSwiss]

19. Ouch.

[gtar100]

6. Our wonderful military, so dutifully protecting us, is going to get a lot of us killed.

I can't recall. Was the US Military formed to protect the United States, or are they now an entity separate from the US...except for the money funding them.

[walerosco]

7. I get it now

Kill 100s of inncoent civilians and the Pakistani govt doesnt bat an eye but when 20 soldiers die then the US has to go. I hope the next US drone hits the country's equivalent of congress for not speaking out until now.

[FarCenter]

8. Two of the soldiers were officers -- two majors or a major and a captain -- reports vary

Officers may tend to come from more influential classes of society.

[cosmicone]

9. Nothing but hot air.

Pakistan will collapse without US financial assistance. They keep pretenses of sovereignty while obsequiously begging for financial aid through other channels.

[Poll_Blind]

12. LOL, you also claimed "we could bring everyone home" if we did 10 days of airstrikes on Pakistan.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=5042030&mesg_id=5042557">Remember?

Get real. Or don't. Your choice. But it's tough to take commentary like yours seriously.

PB

[closeupready]

18. Ignored?

He is NOT a liberal, that much I know.

[cosmicone]

21. The two paths are not mutually exclusive. n/t

[Bette Noir]

10. When do we give up the pretense that we're not an empire?

[FarCenter]

11. When we can no longer afford it due to economic collapse

[DeSwiss]

20. Exactly.

"The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where
the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery..." ~Frank Zappa

[Response]

26. Coming to a soup kitchen near you.

[plumbob]

13. Gosh, you mean we kill them and then they want us to leave?

No one could have predicted...


I'll take any reason to close down our worldwide military empire. Bring 'em home, Now.

[IamK]

14. I thought blowing people up was one of the "certain unalienable rights"

mentioned in the constitution. It was probably a calculated attack against troops friendly to insurgents and not "friendly fire"...

[totodeinhere]

15. I bet they are bluffing. They wouldn't want to lose the millions in military aid we give them.

We will probably buy them off with even more money.

[Charronxyz]

22. The chinese are offering more money...

and at much better conditions...

[The Northerner]

16. It's saddening that it took the Pakistani govt that long to demand

that the US military withdraw from its lands.

[Purveyor]

25. Indeed! eom

[PuffedMica]

17. Bush's war should have been ended years ago

There was nothing to be gained by military action in Afghanistan after the year 2003. Bush and Cheney's adventurous war policies have now put us in a deep, deep hole.

[David__77]

23. It's Obama's war now, not Bush's.

There's more than enough crimes to go around. But there's only one chieftain.

[emilyg]

24. Yes.

[Response]

27. Please, let's just look forward.

[Response]

28. Please, let's just look forward.