#Drones? Who? What?

 
"In all, about 335 American personnel — C.I.A. officers and contractors and Special Operations forces — were being asked to leave the country, said a Pakistani official closely involved in the decision.

It was not clear how many C.I.A. personnel that would leave behind; the total number in Pakistan has not been disclosed. But the cuts demanded by the Pakistanis amounted to 25 to 40 percent of United States Special Operations forces in the country, the officials said. The number also included the removal of all the American contractors used by the C.I.A. in Pakistan."  NY Times

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(Irony Alert)  What's the matter with those people in Pakistan?   Don't they understand that the US decides for them what will or will not be?  Sovereignty? We dealt with that idea in Iraq.  Didn't we?

To quote Christopher Matthews (is that still his name?) a few years back, "Who is in charge in Iraq, Us or them?"

Well, soon they will "sober up" (sort of) and realize who is in charge.  Petraeus will fix all this.  pl

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/12/world/asia/12pakistan.html

Comments

[Fred]

"... Mr. Davis was involved in a covert C.I.A. effort to penetrate one militant group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, which has ties to Pakistan’s military and intelligence establishment, has made deepening inroads in Afghanistan, and is perceived as a global threat." Yet another global terror movement, sure makes the War on Terror a great success. Another tax cut or two and I'm sure they'll surrender.

Since we cant' trust Karzai further than the local Swiss bank it is about time we cut a deal with the Taliban, we leave - they take care of the jihadis

[The Twisted Genius]

This is the other part of the payment to get Davis (and our secrets) out of Pakistan. I wonder if we'll take the hint? It seems like another tale similar to the "The Grocer and Alice's Cat" as told by Brigadier Ali.

[William R. Cumming]

Will this "order" be enforced?

[FB Ali]

Things appear to be getting worse. It is being reported that Gen Pasha, the ISI chief, arrived in Washington on Sunday for a 3-day stay, with meetings scheduled with Panetta and Mullins, among others. On Monday he met Panetta (as reported in the NYT) and after the meeting changed his plans and left Washington the same evening.

This breakdown in relations was precipitated by the Davis affair, but then things were patched up with his release in return for concessions promised by the CIA. The day after he was let go, the CIA launched a drone attack on a gathering of pro-Pakistan tribal leaders in N. Waziristan, killing over 40 and wounding many more. This so outraged army chief Kayani that he issued a strongly worded statement of condemnation, the first time he had spoken publicly about the drone campaign. This also seems to have caused him to pull the plug on CIA operations in Pakistan.

Yes, WRC, the demands will be enforced.

[Cato the Censor]

So in large part due to Raymond Davis being a homicidal loose cannon, the CIA's operations in a nominally allied country get rolled up. This is as close to a textbook definition of screwing the pooch as can be found in real life. When does the USG learn to not only not rely on Blackwater/Xie types, but to avoid them totally? Is "lesson learned" an obsolete category in the USG?

[Patrick Lang]

Cato

OK. We can replace contractors with career civil servants? pl

[William R. Cumming]

Thanks General Ali!

[VietnamVet]

FB Ali,

I can’t imagine that Pakistanis are not being influenced by the Arab Spring. Any government that allows foreigners to bomb its inhabitants (even the mountain savages in the Northwest Frontier) is sitting on a razor’s edge waiting to be sliced in half. Self survival is a strong instinct; thus, the ISI chief’s quick flight back home.

Cognitive Dissidence has totally fogged up DC. The fact is that the Obama Administrative is a continuation of the Bush II Administration. Rhetoric is not reality. There is no there in President Obama. He is balancing the Federal Budget on the backs of 14 million unemployed. He calls for régime change in Libya but his actions produced a stalemate.

Freedom and democracy is the rhetoric but military Strongman Dictatorships and neo-liberal economic exploitation are the reality. For a decade American leaders have gotten away with a three front Holy War and screwing the workers. The Arab Spring and Economic Distress are terminating America’s Empire.

[Matthew]

And now the drones are killing our own men. See http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/11/predator-drone-us-soldiers-killed_n_847767.html

I hate this cowardly weapon.

[Cato the Censor]

They would at least be theoretically accountable. For all we know, Raymond Davis is running around this minute, still armed, still dangerous, and still spooking for the USG.

[Patrick Lang]

Cato

You understand the down stream costs of career civil servants as opposed to contractors? pl

[TamBram]

Well, Pakistan is sure switching the Chinese in quickly--Chinese troops have taken up position along the "Line of Control" in Kashmir.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-04-10/india/29403225_1_gilgit-baltistan-area-chinese-troops-karakoram-highway

[Frabjous]

VietnamVet - "Cognitive Dissidence”: is that a typo or a new thought pattern? Either way, I like it!

A tactic that needs to be deployed on/in/by USG...

Mark

[walrus]

Col. Lang:

"Cato

You understand the down stream costs of career civil servants as opposed to contractors? pl
"

With respect Col. Lang, do you understand that once contractors get their foot in your door, they will do their level best to jam it wide open?

Multi level marketing is a vicious and highly effective tool when used against public servants trying to manage "contractors".

[FB Ali]

VietnamVet,

Anti-US sentiment was already very high among the Pakistani public. And the drone strikes have been very unpopular all along. There is more to this threatened rupture.

The Pakistan military has been urging the US for a long time to involve it in brokering a settlement of the Afghan conflict. It has offered to bring the Taliban and other insurgents to the table, and to stand surety that the agreement would hold after the US left. The US has studiously refused to let them come anywhere near the process.

I think the military has got fed up. It is also fed up with being treated as a 'bought' entity that can be pushed around.

[Spafford]

Cognitive dissodence is a theory in social psychology 1st developed by Dr. Leon Festinger, Univ of Kansas. He assessed college students who were given a meaningless task. When tested on their appreciation for the task they test low. But when sent out to recruit other students to take the test, they subsequently tested a high level of appreciation for the task. Thus a "dissodence" in their conginitive processes. The term is now overused by many (mainly in the media as it sounds good) who know little of it.

[Cato the Censor]

Col. Lang: Do you mean pensions and health care plans? This seems rather small compared to the kind of immediate blowback Davis and his ilk generate. Or maybe I'm just not getting your point. I simply think all this reliance on mercenaries (and that's what they are, even if they're in mufti) is a bad, bad idea.

[Augustin L]

The new nazis:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8Q3dOWomVI&feature=player_embedded

[Patrick Lang]

Cato & walrus

I am just checking to know if Cato understands that having CSvants do the job is more expensive. pl

[robt willmann]

The New York Times newspaper in its article referenced above obviously continues in its role as another stenographer for the federal government when declaring that: "At the time of his arrest, Mr. Davis was involved in a covert C.I.A. effort to penetrate one militant group, Lashkar-e-Taiba ...." That phony cover story was easily blown out of the water on this SST website.

The NYT does provide a couple of interesting tidbits of information. One is that "[Davis] was held for 47 days of detention and, the officials said, questioned for 14 days by ISI agents during his imprisonment in Lahore, infuriating American officials." The other is that after the arrogant and foolish drone strike the day after Davis was released, "there have been no drone attacks since then."

We tend to repeat ourselves, especially as we get older, and I will do so. The U.S. has for too long engaged in a gangster foreign policy, using the same methods as gangsters in organized crime -- deceit, bribery, intimidation, and violence.

Compounding the problem is the government's escalating arrogance. And while the U.S. is financially insolvent, Communist-Socialist China is lending us money, with interest, and is going around the world making deals ... without making drone strikes.

[Adam L. Silverman]

Spafford: I think the confusion is that we've had two typos. Its cognitive dissonance.

[Adam L. Silverman]

COL Lang and Cato: If I may I think you are both arguing two different things. If I understand Cato's concern it is that by empowering the contracting companies we create incentives that promote bad foreign and defense policy in pursuit of corporate profits. If I understand COL Lang correctly he is discussing the differences in bringing someone onto the payroll, with civil service (Title V) protections full time, including benefits like health care and retirement. For certain things it makes perfect sense to use contractors to control costs, for other things it is actually cheaper, even with all the sunk costs, to go with civil servants.

[fasteddiez]

Vietnam Vet, Frabious:

Cognitive Dissidence's provenance hails from Professor Heirich (Harpo) Marx's studies and experiments in brain wave stimulation among combatative rats who have had their brains removed.

The Tea Party has adopted the concept, and its attendant behavior sets; hence their slogan "Cognitive Dissidence, or Fight." This, of course, aligns with their "Springtime for Teabags," offensive, (a noun disguised as an adjective) answering the Arab World's press grabbing upheavals at the moment.

A Flag, bearing the slogan, and a coiled rattlesnake on the right side, as well as a campfire burning books on the left side, is being considered for fielding at the next KonKlave.

My overtaxed brain housing group is having a hard time reconciling the duality of the messages proferred both by the Arabs, as well as their tea sipping opposites. This is clearly due to dissonance of some sort, I fear.

[Patrick Lang]

Adam

I think we both know we are talking about two different things. pl

[Frabjous]

Fasteddiez, Dr. Silverman, thanks for clearing that up - I was beginning to think (cogito ergo sum...je pense ce que je suis - speaking of duality) that my mind could not reconcile both the typographic and psychosocial discontinuities inherent in the dissonant Cognitive Dissidents attempting to convince us that ignorance is, indeed, strength!

In the immortal words of Monty Python: “Renée Descartes was a drunken fart: 'I drink, therefore I am'"

Mark