[R-G] A line not to be crossed

[Anthony Fenton]

A line not to be crossed
American-led war on terror cannot be allowed to spread into Pakistan's  
Pashtun tribal area
By Eric Margolis
http://www.torontosun.com/News/Columnists/Margolis_Eric/2008/06/15/pf-5880581.html

The killing of 11 Pakistani soldiers by U.S. air and artillery strikes  
last week shows just how quickly the American-led war in Afghanistan  
is spreading into neighbouring Pakistan.

Pakistan's military branded the air attack "unprovoked and cowardly."  
There was outrage across Pakistan. However, the unstable government in  
Islamabad, which depends on large infusions of U.S. aid, later  
softened its protests.

The U.S., which used a B-1 heavy bomber and F-15 strike aircraft in  
the attacks, called its action, "self-defence."

This latest U.S. attack on Pakistan could not come at a worse time.  
Supreme Court justices ousted by the Pervez Musharraf dictatorship  
staged national protests this week, underscoring the illegality of  
Musharraf's continuing presidency and its unseemly support by the  
U.S., Britain, Canada and France. Asif Zardari, head of the ruling  
Pakistan People's Party, shamefully joined Musharraf in opposing  
restoration of the justice system out of fear the reinstated judges  
would reopen long-festering corruption charges against him

Attacks by U.S. aircraft, Predator hunter-killer drones, U.S. Special  
Forces and CIA teams have been rising steadily inside Pakistan's  
autonomous Pashtun tribal area known by the acronym, FATA. The  
Pashtun, who make up half Afghanistan's population and 15% of  
Pakistan's, straddle the border, which they reject as a leftover of  
Imperial Britain's divide and rule policies.

Instead of intimidating the pro-Taliban Pakistani Pashtun, U.S. air  
and artillery strikes have ignited a firestorm of anti-western fury  
among FATA's warlike tribesmen and increased their support for the  
Taliban.

The U.S. is emulating Britain's colonial divide and rule tactics by  
offering up to $500,000 to local Pashtun tribal leaders to get them to  
fight pro-Taliban elements, causing more chaos in the already  
turbulent region, and stoking tribal rivalries. The U.S. is using this  
same tactic in Iraq and Afghanistan.

This week's deadly U.S. attacks again illustrate the fact that the  
60,000 U.S. and NATO ground troops in Afghanistan are incapable of  
holding off the Taliban and its allies, even though the Afghan  
resistance has nothing but small arms to battle the West's hi-tech  
arsenal. U.S. air power is almost always called in when there are  
clashes.

In fact, the main function for U.S. and NATO infantries is to draw the  
Taliban into battle so the Afghan "mujahidin" can be bombed from the  
air. Without 24/7 U.S. airpower, which can respond in minutes, western  
forces in Afghanistan would be quickly isolated, cut off from  
supplies, and defeated.

But these air strikes, as we saw this week, are blunt instruments in  
spite of all the remarkable skill of the U.S. Air Force and Navy  
pilots. They kill more civilians than Taliban fighters. Mighty U.S.  
B-1 bombers are not going to win the hearts and minds of Afghans. Each  
bombed village and massacred caravan wins new recruits to the Taliban  
and its allies.

OPEN WARFARE

The U.S. and its allies are edging into open warfare against Pakistan.  
The western occupation army in Afghanistan is unable to defeat Taliban  
fighters due to its lack of combat troops. The outgoing supreme  
commander, U.S. Gen. Dan McNeill, recently admitted he would need  
400,000 soldiers to pacify Afghanistan.

Unable to win in Afghanistan, the frustrated western powers are  
turning on Pakistan, a nation of 165 million. Pakistanis are bitterly  
opposed to the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan and their nation's  
subjugation to U.S. policy under dictator Musharraf.

"We just need to occupy Pakistan's tribal territory," insists the  
Pentagon, "to stop its Pashtun tribes from supporting and sheltering  
Taliban." But a U.S.-led invasion of FATA simply will push pro-Taliban  
Pashtun militants deeper into Pakistan's Northwest Frontier province,  
drawing western troops ever deeper into Pakistan. Already  
overextended, western forces will be stretched even thinner and  
clashes with Pakistan's tough regular army may be inevitable.

Widening the Afghan War into Pakistan is military stupidity on a grand  
scale, and political madness. But Washington and its obedient allies  
seem hell-bent on charging into a wider regional war that no number of  
heavy bombers will win.