President Bush Orders Special Ops For Incursions Into Pakistan

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Bush Said to Give Orders Allowing Raids in Pakistan
-- New York Times

WASHINGTON — President Bush secretly approved orders in July that for the first time allow American Special Operations forces to carry out ground assaults inside Pakistan without the prior approval of the Pakistani government, according to senior American officials.

The classified orders signal a watershed for the Bush administration after nearly seven years of trying to work with Pakistan to combat the Taliban and Al Qaeda, and after months of high-level stalemate about how to challenge the militants’ increasingly secure base in Pakistan’s tribal areas.

American officials say that they will notify Pakistan when they conduct limited ground attacks like the Special Operations raid last Wednesday in a Pakistani village near the Afghanistan border, but that they will not ask for its permission.

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My Comment: This is a pivotal moment in our war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda, and with the alliance that we have had with Pakistan in waging war against these groups. After 7 years the U.S. has finally come to the realization that the Pakistan Government is not serious on pursuing and eliminating the Al Qaeda and Taliban elements that are on its territory.

This executive decision by President Bush was made in July, right after the bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul. The timing is not coincidental. It is now clear that the American Government believes that Pakistan's Intelligence Agencies were responsible for the attack, and if that is the case, they can only now assume that elements of the Pakistan military and intelligence services are actively supporting certain Taliban and Al Qaeda factions.

This war is now escalating.