I’ve got a bad feeling about this...

[erik_kosberg]

What if the Pakistani government is overthrown (a distinct possibility given the current mood among some sectors of the population there) before it can live up to its promise to help America?

What if we try to invade Afghanistan with ground troops (after possibly having to have fought our way through Pakistan first)? How are we going to invade a country strewn with 10 million landmines remaining from the Soviet-Afghan war?

[frazzledspice]

I spoke to a Major in the National Guard today, and he eased my mind a little (at least about the possibility of a draft being reinstated, which will probably be my greatest fear until February 23, 2004.)

He said that, at the moment, they expect the effort to last about ten years, involving high specialized forces, and they do not anticipate a huge military buildup.

He said that most of the forces that are being called up in the states are there to provide support and security within our borders.

He had a smile on his face (he is a very positive, upbeat person) and seemed more optimistic about the ultimate outcome than most civilians.

[erik_kosberg]

Jane’s has an article discussing Pakistan’s dilemma. The scale of the conflict may in part be determined by who prevails in the debate taking place within our government, Powell or Rumsfeld.

[realtraveller]

My biggest fear about destabilizing Pakistan is that Pakistan has the nuclear bomb. Given this and given that Pakistan has a large percentage of its population who are followers of Bin Ladin, we have to annhilate these terrorists groups before they have access to that bomb.

At first they killed 6, in the WTC blast of 1993. We did nothing except arrest and try a few followers of Bin Ladin. Then in 1998, they killed hundreds in our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. We shot a few cruise missiles which did nothing, even blowing up a Sudanese pharmaceutical plant. They bombed the U.S.S. Cole and we did nothing.

They are escalating the violence and if we do not act decisively now, the next time it won't be 6 or 6,000 it will be 6,000,000.