Obama Expands Missile Strikes Inside Pakistan

[Wretched Excess]

well, finally.  a campaign promise kept, albeit a bizarre one.  attacking pakistan was another debate gaffe that, in stead of simply admitting error the next day, he turned into doctrine.  hillary had said that he was naive the week before this originally came out for saying that he would meet with terrorist heads of states without preconditions.  so after he blurted this out, he couldn't very well take it back;  hillary would have had a field day.

Obama Expands Missile Strikes Inside Pakistan

WASHINGTON — With two missile strikes over the past week, the Obama administration has expanded the covert war run by the Central Intelligence Agency inside Pakistan, attacking a militant network seeking to topple the Pakistani government.

The missile strikes on training camps run by Baitullah Mehsud represent a broadening of the American campaign inside Pakistan, which has been largely carried out by drone aircraft. Under President Bush, the United States frequently attacked militants from Al Qaeda and the Taliban involved in cross-border attacks into Afghanistan, but had stopped short of raids aimed at Mr. Mehsud and his followers, who have played less of a direct role in attacks on American troops.

The strikes are another sign that President Obama is continuing, and in some cases extending, Bush administration policy in using American spy agencies against terrorism suspects in Pakistan, as he had promised to do during his presidential campaign. At the same time, Mr. Obama has begun to scale back some of the Bush policies on the detention and interrogation of terrorism suspects, which he has criticized as counterproductive.

Mr. Mehsud was identified early last year by both American and Pakistani officials as the man who had orchestrated the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister and the wife of Pakistan’s current president, Asif Ali Zardari. Mr. Bush included Mr. Mehsud’s name in a classified list of militant leaders whom the C.I.A. and American commandos were authorized to capture or kill.

It is unclear why the Obama administration decided to carry out the attacks, which American and Pakistani officials said occurred last Saturday and again on Monday, hitting camps run by Mr. Mehsud’s network. The Saturday strike was aimed specifically at Mr. Mehsud, but he was not killed, according to Pakistani and American officials.

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[Chris_]

Lets flip off the only ME country that at least helps us a little bit.

Having Soros direct our "strategy" in the ME is going to open a whole new war -- this time with a known nuclear nation.

[DumbAss Tanker]

I doubt they'll be real broken up about us striking a bunch of guys that were actually targeting THEM instead of US, but I'm sure there will be at least a pro forma protest about it just in the interests of preserving their own sovereignity, and for public consumption at home.

[Chris_]

I doubt they'll be real broken up about us striking a bunch of guys that were actually targeting THEM instead of US, but I'm sure there will be at least a pro forma protest about it just in the interests of preserving their own sovereignity, and for public consumption at home.

This is the ME, where borders mean more than lives.  They will take the result, but crossing the order against their specific desires is NOT going to be taken lightly.