Well organized, well trained, supplied with perfect intelligence, and able to hold their own against Pakistan’s best. Granted, I don’t keep up to the day to day attacks occurring in Pakistan, but this was a significant attack on a military installation, not a bomb in a market. Is this a new type of attack? Are the Taliban or other groups changing, or is this possibly a new force? What does it mean for Pakistan? And what I want to know most, if they can do that for 15 hours, would these men have stood a chance if their goal was acquiring nuclear material instead of blowing up planes?
ok… so when do we stop calling them “militants” and start calling them “civil war between factions of the Pakistani military”? Because that is sort of what it sounds like.
I’d disagree with some of the assessment in the article. How hard is it to cut a wire fence and run onto an airfield? They were using RPG’s and conventional weapons which is nothing new. Just because it wasn’t their usual disposable sand farmer doesn’t mean the Taliban can’t cough up a dozen people who can hold a rifle steady.
I’d say that Pakistan is on the verge of revolution. The attack on the Pakistani naval nase killed 15, and the militants destroyed two $36 million aircraft.
I’d say a reassessment of pakistan 9as an ally) is in order.
Is Pakistan ever not on the verge of a revolution?
There are jyhadists that have been traveling from conflict to conflict for thirty years, that some of them have gotten pretty good at fighting doesn’t seem wildly surprising.
200 ‘insurgents’ in uniform kill 25 Pakistani troops in prolonged fight. So, when does it turn from an insurgency to a civil war? With them kicking out a number of our troops in the country, and China declining to build a naval base there, they seem to be lacking help to combat the threat.
Of course it doesn’t seem to be the fault of the Pakistani people. They get terrorist attacks on a much more regular basis than we do.
I see that our Pakistan expertise on the dope is as strong as ever.
Faisal Airbase is smack in the middle of the city. It and other military installations have in recent times merged into the surrounding areas to the extent that in some places for example Lahore and Rawalpindi it is next to impossible to tell where the base begins and the city ends and vice versa.
And getting hold of security forces uniforms is both easy and legal, just find any one of a dozen thrift or second hand shops in the country for the basic uniform and insignia are also easy to come by.
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14 US troops; is hardly a significant number
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It does get difficult when our so called allies across the Durant line allow militants to cross over.
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No kidding we get more attacks then you do; you have one attack and its like Hiroshima and there is practically nothing but that on the news for the next six months.
While I agree with your third point to some extent, I seriously doubt that 3,000 Pakistanis have been killed by terrorists in any year, let alone in one attack.
Actually no. The current fatality count since 2003
And the terrorist bit looks dubious to me, since a lot of them are poor tribesmen caught in the middle.
I’ll grant you that 2300 is not far off. :eek: