Troops allowed to enter Pakistan - Focus on Pakistan - MSNBC.com

Now we're talking!  US troops are allowed to enter into Pakistan under the following scenarios:

 

• “Hot pursuit” of al-Qaida, Taliban and terrorist command-and-control targets “from AFG into Pakistan (must be continuous and uninterrupted).”
• If the head of U.S. Central Command, which oversees American forces in the Middle East and Central Asia, approved direct action “against The Big 3,” listed as Osama bin Laden; his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri; and Taliban supreme leader Mullah Omar. The three are still believed to be hiding in the border region.
• If the Defense secretary approved such an incursion.

What that means is, is if we are chasing after a terrorist or we know exactly where one of the "big 3" are, we're cleared to go into Pakistan.

I'm just glad our guys have the balls to do something like this.  I get the feeling that under a Democratic President, we'd be asking for permission from Pakistan to go after Bin Laden.

So there won't be any "Dukes Of Hazzard" type of us stopping our pursuit once we get to the border.  I noticed that the "geographic limits" are "no deeper than 6.2 miles.  Personally, I don't care if we're pursuing guys all the way across the border and into the capital city.  If we're after a bad guy, I say we chase him down until he escapes, he's captured, or he's killed.

 

Of course, Pakistan denies all this:

Told of the guidelines, Pakistani military spokesman Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad said, “This is all nonsense. Pakistan never allowed the coalition forces to enter into our territory while chasing militants. There was no such agreement, there was no such understanding.”

That may very well be true.  But that doesn't change a thing.  If we know where Osama is and we go after him and do get him, Pakistan suddenly has a major problem on their hands.  They were trying to block us from coming in and they had a most wanted terrorist within their lands.

But the opposite might be true.  They may be saying "no" but that may only be for the public to see.  Privately they may be saying "come on in".

 

Travis

travis@rightwinglunatic.com