U.S. wants to widen area in Pakistan where it can operate drones

[slipslidingaway]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/19/AR2010111906268.html?sid=ST2010111905681

"The United States has renewed pressure on Pakistan to expand the areas where CIA drones can operate inside the country, reflecting concern that the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan is being undermined by insurgents' continued ability to take sanctuary across the border, U.S. and Pakistani officials said.

The U.S. appeal has focused on the area surrounding the Pakistani city of Quetta, where the Afghan Taliban leadership is thought to be based. But the request also seeks to expand the boundaries for drone strikes in the tribal areas, which have been targeted in 101 attacks this year, the officials said...

The CIA's drone campaign in Pakistan has accelerated dramatically in recent months, with 47 attacks recorded since the beginning of September, according to The Long War Journal, a Web site that tracks the strikes. By contrast, there were 45 strikes in the first five years of the drone program...

Pakistani officials stressed that Quetta is a densely populated city where an errant strike is more likely to kill innocent civilians, potentially provoking a backlash. Unlike the semi-autonomous tribal territories, Baluchistan is considered a core part of Pakistan..."

[kenny blankenship]

1. YAY. Ever expanding war

ever diminishing freedom and services.

It was totally worth it.

[slipslidingaway]

2. Yes, just be happy!!! n/t

[slipslidingaway]

3. Balochistan is the ultimate prize

May 9 2009

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/KE09Df03.html

"It's a classic case of calm before the storm. The AfPak chapter of Obama's brand new OCO ("Overseas Contingency Operations"), formerly GWOT ("global war on terror") does not imply only a surge in the Pashtun Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). A surge in Balochistan as well may be virtually inevitable.

Balochistan is totally under the radar of Western corporate media. But not the Pentagon's. An immense desert comprising almost 48% of Pakistan's area, rich in uranium and copper, potentially very rich in oil, and producing more than one-third of Pakistan's natural gas, it accounts for less than 4% of Pakistan's 173 million citizens. Balochs are the majority, followed by Pashtuns. Quetta, the provincial capital, is considered Taliban Central by the Pentagon, which for all its high-tech wizardry mysteriously has not been able to locate Quetta resident "The Shadow", historic Taliban emir Mullah Omar himself.

Strategically, Balochistan is mouth-watering: east of Iran, south of Afghanistan, and boasting three Arabian sea ports, including Gwadar, practically at the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz.

Gwadar - a port built by China - is the absolute key. It is the essential node in the crucial, ongoing, and still virtual Pipelineistan war between IPI and TAPI. IPI is the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline, also known as the "peace pipeline", which is planned to cross from Iranian to Pakistani Balochistan - an anathema to Washington. TAPI is the perennially troubled, US-backed Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline, which is planned to cross western Afghanistan via Herat and branch out to Kandahar and Gwadar..."

[Subdivisions]

4. Yup. This was predicted up to three years ago, long before the first reports of

U.S. advancement into Pakistan. Now they want Quetta...

"The United States has renewed pressure on Pakistan to expand the areas where CIA drones can operate inside the country, reflecting concern that the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan is being undermined by insurgents' continued ability to take sanctuary across the border, U.S. and Pakistani officials said."



A look at this map shows the position of the Port of Gwadar (the ultimate prize), which happens to be adjacent to the border with Iran. The U.S. will continue to expand its area of operations along the border until it encompasses Gwadar.

More from Dec 2007: http://demopedia.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2564559

Once the U.S. begins to dig in for the long-haul (as in continuing the building of military bases) in Pakistan and Afghanistan and get the populations of these two contries under control, all the newly won resources will begin to flow toward the Port of Gwadar for export to the U.S. and its customers.

The "War on Terror" is and always was a resource grab.

[slipslidingaway]

5. And not much discussion in our media ...

they're too busy most of the time keeping the Dem/Repub feud center stage.

Thanks for the link.

[sarcasmo]

6. I voted for change and this is no where near what I voted for.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

7. Expanding the killing fields to find the Light at the End of the Tunnel.

[Solly Mack]

8. ....

shakes head