Reports: Pakistani Military Killing Buner Civilians
Pakistani Military Reports Killing 55-60 Militants
Pakistani Army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas reported that “55 to 60 Taliban have been killed over the last 24 hours in the Buner operation,” adding that all entry points to the contested district have been sealed off. He also confirmed that two members of the paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) had been killed and eight others wounded.
Residents of the Buner District, however, told a different story. The New York Times quotes Abdul Bakht as saying that “they have not fired on a single Taliban yet. All they are doing is hitting the houses.” Anecdotal reports point to several civilians being killed and a growing humanitarian crisis, but the Pakistani military rarely reports civilian killings and the overall civilian toll rarely emerges until long after the offensive.
Pakistan launched the Buner offensive earlier this week in an attempt to drive Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) followers from the district, just 60 miles from Islamabad. While most such offensives simply chase the militants into neighboring districts, the TTP has put up a surprisingly fierce resistance, capturing scores of security forces and even taking total control of the town of Sultanwas.
wadosy
May 2nd, 2009 at 9:13 am
you gots to stir up enough trouble to justify military intervention.
neocons have tried that strategy in the balkans, where it worked, resulting in israeli american occupation of the power vacuum left behind in the balkans when the soviet union collapsed.
it also worked to a certain extent in iraqi kurdistan, which just happens to be pro-israel and pro-american, and just happens to have the closest oil of any consequence to israel.
wadosy
May 2nd, 2009 at 9:15 am
neocons are doing the same thing in darfur, in an attempt to change regimes in sudan and expel the chinese oil company in south sudan.
the same thing is happening in somalia, abkhazia, south ossetia, now balochistan and northern pakistan… stand by for trouble in yemen and eritrea, and more trouble in ukraine, georgia, probably kygyzstan, tajikistan, uzbekistan and turkmenistan…
it’s really simple: all you have to do is stir up enough trouble to justify intervention, and you stir up that trouble by exploiting latent conflicts in the country you’re trying to destabilize…
the ploy’s become so obvious in pakistan that it can no longer be denied…
…and once you see a map of the project, it becomes even more obvious.
Mike E
May 2nd, 2009 at 8:02 pm
Dear wadosy-
After moderating comments today I see that you have a common theme. Please note that you cannot blame everything on Israel nor can every world event have an Israeli connection. Chill out.
wadosy
May 2nd, 2009 at 8:34 pm
i dont expect you to reply. you already know you're on thin ice, and your job is to salvage the situation.
you cant. you will have to resort to more of ledeen's creative destruction.
it's just too bad that israelis seem to have abandoned their sanity along with their morals.
Mike E
May 2nd, 2009 at 8:50 pm
Pasting your theories in numerous comments does NOT add to the discussion. This is not a forum for your positions on the Israeli/Exxon connection to US foreign policy. I am not taking a position on your ideas, simply asking that you put them somewhere where it is relevant. You appear to think it is relevant _everywhere_, which I do not believe.
Finally, we at antiwar.com are not collectivists. The staff does not look at the whole of "Israelis" and make blanket statements about the population. A society and culture is ultimately made of individuals who act, not ethnicities or parties. Your predictable statements about "Israelis <enter verb>" are just another form of collectivism. Be precise in your language and perhaps people will listen more closely. Otherwise you sound like you are putting all Israelis into one "bucket" just like I suspect you don't like the Israeli defense policy makers do with "Palestinians." As you know, there isn't one "Palestinian"… there are terrorists, children, mothers, fathers and innocent civilians. That applies to all countries and all peoples.
Stop pasting diatribes and start talking about the article.
Finally, I predict you will say that I "support Israel" or I am under "their" command. If that is how you see the world, I suggest you re-examine your worldview.
wadosy
May 2nd, 2009 at 8:57 pm
i mistakenly thought you were an \”intensedebate\” guy… sorry for that.
you are not collectivists, but apparently the US and israeli governments are, and they are continuing on with this PNAC project… i suggest you quit defending them, and quit harrassing people who are trying to make sense of the situation.
Mike E
May 2nd, 2009 at 9:02 pm
You continue to see the world through this PNAC/Israel/Exxon lens. I am not defending anything but reasonable, intelligent discussion with arguments that are backed up by evidence. This discussion meets none of those criteria. I am merely responding so that the handful of others that do what you do may read this and understand our policy.
Note that if you replaced "Israel" with "China" and "PNAC" with "AEI" I would still moderate the crap out of the comments. I don't defend any of these parties/individuals, just this topic of these comment threads. Take a breath and analyze the world without thinking about Israel. Just try.
wadosy
May 3rd, 2009 at 5:14 pm
did you get a chance to look at that map?
http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/3637/pnacplan1...
would you like to refute points made in the text appearing on that map, or are you content with pontificating in defense of the neocons?
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