It's Not Just A Job, It's A Comedy Show

One of the subtle pleasures of reading the Times online is noting their quirky wandering photos and captions.

For example, a story with this ominous headline - "U.S. Commanders Seeking to Widen Pakistan Attacks" - includes a photo with the following caption:

American soldiers on patrol last week in eastern Afghanistan near the border along Pakistan’s tribal areas, a militant haven.

And at this writing, here is the photo:

Now, let's be fair - when "Enlarge Image" is clicked this is the dramatic result:

Fun's fun.  The story itself is grim but unsurprising:

WASHINGTON — American commanders in Afghanistan have in recent months urged a widening of the war that could include American attacks on indigenous Pakistani militants in the tribal areas inside Pakistan, according to United States officials.

The requests have been rebuffed for now, the officials said, after deliberations in Washington among senior Bush administration officials who fear that attacking Pakistani radicals may anger Pakistan’s new government, which is negotiating with the militants, and destabilize an already fragile security situation.

American commanders would prefer that Pakistani forces attack the militants, but Pakistani military operations in the tribal areas have slowed recently to avoid upsetting the negotiations.

...

Officials involved in the debate said that the question of attacking Pakistani militants was especially delicate because some militant leaders were believed to still be on the payroll of Pakistan’s intelligence service, called the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, or another part of Pakistan’s intelligence apparatus. Among the groups thought to be targets was one commanded by Sirajuddin Haqqani, son of the legendary militant leader Jalaluddin Haqqani, as well as the network led by Baitullah Mehsud that is believed to have been behind Ms. Bhutto’s death.

For years the intelligence services have relied on a web of sources among Pakistani militant groups to collect information on foreign groups like Al Qaeda that have operated in the tribal areas.

At one time the ISI had a working relationship with Al Qaeda itself.

American officials involved in the discussions said that they had not ruled out striking Pakistani militants in the tribal areas. American forces in Afghanistan are authorized to attack targets in Pakistan in self-defense or if they are in “hot pursuit” of militants fleeing back to havens across the border.

American-led forces in Afghanistan fired artillery at what they suspected was a Haqqani network safe house on March 12 that an American spokesman said posed an “imminent threat.” But the Pakistani Army said the strike killed only civilians.

Administration officials say the risk of angering the new government in Pakistan and stirring increased anti-American sentiment in the tribal areas outweighs the benefits of dismantling militant networks in the region.

“It’s certainly something we want to get to, but not yet,” said one Bush administration official. “If you do it now, you can expect to do it without Pakistani approval, and you can expect to do it only once because the Pakistanis will never help us again.”

The Times does not mention the political breezes blowing around this issue.  Last summer, would-be tough-guy Barack Obama announced that, having invaded and destabilized Iraq, his goal as President would be to invade and destabilize Pakistan, arguing that "At least we know they have WMDs".  I'm kidding, of course, just as he was - Barack will only be committing US troops overseas if they are led by Bill Ayers.

Comments

[smalltownspectacle]

I used the cool iris stack and the zotero snapshot.

The CIA always said they want to bomb Pakistan. That's how you can tell who are spies.

[Topsecretk9]

Armitage told them we would bomb them back to kingdom ,,,oh that's right, he denied saying such.

Thank goodness the neutered blowhard State Department careerist leakers took a powder.

[George G]

The top image is an astronaut seated in a Russian military helicopter shortly after returning from the space station yesterday. Their capsule had a really hairy re-entry and landed more than 200 miles off target.

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