Amid Reports of Resistance, Obama Threatens to Attack Quetta

Reluctance to Attack Major Pakistani City Greatly Exaggerated

President Barack Obama was reported today to be resisting calls by other US officials to launch a series of drone strikes against the Pakistani city of Quetta, with multiple media outlets claiming the president thought such a belligerent act was “risky and unwise.”

Always quick to find ways to disappoint people hoping that Obama would be a force for peace, the president then issued a statement in which he openly threatens to attack Quetta and chastized the Pakistani government for not doing so.

US officials have been reported to be in “real discussions” about attacking Quetta over the past several weeks, despite angry opposition from the Pakistani government and warnings that such an attack could spell the end to long-standing Pakistani cooperation with the drone attacks.

The US has claimed that the so-called Quetta Shura, a group of Taliban fighters that relocated to the city after the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, is controlling much of the Afghan insurgency to this day, while Pakistan insists that the group’s threat is seriously overrated and security forces have already degraded them significantly.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.