US Gives Pakistan Ultimatum: Launch More Offensives Within Weeks

US Delegation Puts Pakistan 'On a Clock'

by Jason Ditz, May 26, 2010

The Obama Administration has reportedly given Pakistan an ultimatum, demanding that they launch yet more military offensives against the Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) “within weeks.”

The demands were issued by a high ranking US delegation which recently visited Pakistan, including National Security Advisor James Jones and CIA Director Leon Panetta, who claimed to have conclusive proof that the TTP was behind the failed Times Square car bombing.

Pakistan has committed hundreds of thousands of soldiers to assorted wars in its northern tribal areas, almost exclusively as a result of previous US demands to do so. The offensives have killed thousands and displaced millions of Pakistani civilians from their homes, fueling resentment of the US across the nation.

The US has most recently been haranguing Pakistan to launch an offensive in North Waziristan, though publicly they have insisted the timing of the invasion was up to Pakistan’s government. It seems however that this is no longer the case, as officials say Pakistan is now “on a clock” to obey the US edict.

Yet the value of the North Waziristan offensive is unclear amid reports that the bulk of the TTP forces have already left the agency and returned to South Waziristan, the target of a previous US-demanded invasion late last year.

For Pakistan the issue is difficult, as the government is already under fire for being too beholden to the Obama Administration and the military is already stretched to its limit fighting several wars in the north while trying to maintain a presence along its ever-hostile border with rival India.

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