Is the CIA Reading My Blog?

Now, maybe we’re getting some progress in this Afghan “war”, or at least a ray of hope.

CNN online today (9/22/10) references a new book by reporter Bob Woodward and reports some interesting stuff.   First of all, the CIA has “. . . created and controls a

U.S. Navy SEALS, via Wikipedia

paramilitary force of 3,000 Afghans that conducts clandestine missions targeting al Qaeda and Taliban fighters in Pakistan . . . ”  And this is equally interesting:

“Pakistan will never allow boots on its soil,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Basit said, referring to foreign troops. “This is one of our red lines.”

A senior Pakistani military official added that there are 954 checkpoints along the border that are manned by Pakistani security forces. He said it would be “next to impossible for a group of people to enter Pakistan to chase al Qaeda and Taliban militants.”

The official did not want to be identified because he is not authorized to speak to the media.  Al Qaeda in Pakistan remains a lethal enemy for the United States, a counter terrorism official said this week.

Now anyone who has followed my ranting comments on the Joplin Globe bloggers’ pages will know that I find the “war” in Afghanistan, which is essentially nation-building, to be strategically wrong.  It was the subject of one of my first POSTS as a Globe blogger last March.

This is NOT meant to denigrate our brave and dedicated troops who always step forward to do their duty and carry out our nation’s policies.  But, it has made little sense to me to

keep playing Whack-a-Mole with Taliban guerilla forces who fade back into the population or into the mountains of Pakistan where, no doubt, Osama is lurking, plotting and scheming in protective obscurity.

Several times I have stated that it would make a lot more sense to assemble an elite force

of commandos, perhaps similar to our Navy SEALS, and strike clandestinely at the

General Powell, via Wikipedia

terrorist leaders wherever they might be found.  As Colin Powell said of the strategy in the first Iraq War, we need to cut the enemy’s head off and then kill it!

Now, it appears that the CIA had this idea as well.  Excellent!  Now this is the kind of action I can really get behind.  Why?  Because it has the potential to get real results quickly.  It targets the real problem, evil men who hate America for threatening their religious power over their own people.  There is no doubt in my military mind that innate selfishness, greed and lust for power is what motivates Osama and his ilk.  They are the root problem, much more so than the poor, naive, brainwashed fools who strap explosives to their bodies or the women and children they employ as shields and cannon fodder.

With “allies” like Pakistan it is little wonder that we have such trouble in this “war”.

Flag of the Pakistan Army, via Wikipedia

They need to take their Red Lines and stick ’em where the sun don’t shine, IMO.  What kind of ally prohibits allied forces from chasing the enemy onto their soil?  A pretty damn poor one, if you ask me!

This report gives me some hope.  For Afghanistan, that is.  Other countries may pose a threat in the future, but if we can cut multiple heads off the hydra now, that’s progress.