Pakistan Begins Offensive Against Taliban

(CBS)  The Pakistan military on Saturday launched a long-awaited attack targeting Taliban positions in the country's south Waziristan region near the Afghan border, amid fast-mounting concerns over a growing number of suicide and bomb attacks coming from the area.

"There is a ground campaign which began before sunrise and is now underway. The military commanders handling this operation have given out precise targets to the troops," said a senior Pakistani government official who spoke to CBS News' Farhan Bokhari on condition of anonymity.

Western diplomats said the operation was likely to be watched closely from Washington where U.S. President Barack Obama is finalizing his strategy for stabilizing Afghanistan.

A military defeat of the Taliban in south Waziristan "will likely weaken them across this region and help the U.S. cause to defeat them ultimately," said one Western diplomat in Islamabad who spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity.

However, other Western diplomats warned, the estimated 10,000 Taliban in south Waziristan who will face up to an estimated 30,000 Pakistani soldiers, were likely to fight vigorously, knowing that this battle could be their last chance for the survival of their group.

Earlier in the day, a senior Pakistani official speaking on background told CBS News that the operation could last for up to two months: "Our aim is to run over the ground and seize back control of south Waziristan. Realistically, two months looks like a pretty realistic time table."

The south Waziristan campaign comes after a sharp rise in terrorist attacks across Pakistan in the past two weeks. Pakistani investigators have found close links between the militants involved in an unprecedented attack on the army's general headquarters in Rawalpindi, a large city adjoining Islamabad, and the Taliban in Waziristan.

Other similar episodes have included a brazen armed attack on 3 police offices in Lahore, Pakistan's second largest city.

Pakistani officials have warned that the Taliban themselves or other groups loyal to their cause will likely try to stage more terrorist attacks across Pakistan in the coming days, to dent public support for the military.

[steeepe]

It's about time! They have mollycoddled the Taliban and extremists long enough. Maybe when they're through they can come over here and deal with the right-wing extremists, our own Taliban.

[culturechang]

and I understand that we paid $6 billion for it.

[pensacola8-2009]

I highly reccommend reading this weeks NEWSWEEK with Joe Biden on the front cover. He clearly stood alone on the policy to re-organize financial appropriations from Afghanistan to Pakistan, since the amounts were 30-to-1 in favor of Afghanistan, but the Taliban was in Pakistan.

President Obama has many expert advisors and staffers surrounding him with projections about policy limitations, relationship limitations, and resource limitations. The areas of overlap between all those don't leave many long term paths to pursue. I will remind many readers that all those around the President simply have one vantage point, and that President Roosevelt had a clear advantage during WWII with cooperation from Britan and Russia. (Yes Russia) Roosevelt's situation offered several vantage points and a coordinated effort was the key to the historical defeat of Germany and Japan.

There are too many who feel that the USA is working alone. I will remind readers that we started with a coalition in Afghanistan, but lost most of it when we shifted our focus to Iraq and lost prime alliances with the political upsets and losses of Australia's Prime Minister John Howard and Britan's Tony Blair.

President Obama's only hope for defeating alQueda is by recruiting and enrolling world agreement to coordinate an effort to either defeat alQueda or backing down.

President Obama's real mess is recovering from the strategic blunder to invade Iraq during the Bush adminstration.

[G-I_Jesus]

To weaken the will of the Taliban go into the Taliban villages while the men are hunting and:

- Give each Taliban woman a makeover;

- Retrieve all the men's hate literature (or rather pictures) and replace them with Sports Illustrated;

- Build a miniature Disney Land with desert themes like "Pirates of the Arabian";

- Bring in a courageous divorce lawyer;

- Replace all the men's munitions with blanks that shoot out rainbow colors and stuff to entertain the children;

- Convert the women and children to scientology.

[Solarrays247]

LOL....thanks for the chuckle, G-I_Jesus! But...your idea could work! Certainly nothing else has! Peace! ;=)