Pakistani Troops Fire At US 'Copters, US Admits

By Cernig

There have now, so far as I know, been three reported incidents of Pakistani troops firing at US helicopters since the 15th of this month. This last time, though, US officials are admitting it...but their story still differs from the Pakistani one.

Two American OH-58 reconnaissance helicopters, known as Kiowas, were on a routine afternoon patrol in the eastern province of Khost when they received small-arms fire from a Pakistani border post, said Tech Sgt. Kevin Wallace, a U.S. military spokesman. There was no damage to aircraft or crew, officials said.

U.S. Central Command spokesman Rear Adm. Greg Smith said Pakistan and American ground troops exchanged fire after Pakistani forces shot at the helicopters.

He said a joint patrol of Americans and Afghan border police was moving about a mile and a half inside Afghanistan with the helicopters above them. The ground troops reported that Pakistani forces fired toward the helicopters and when they saw that happen, they fired off suppression rounds toward the hilltop.

They did so, Smith said from Centcom headquarters in Tampa, Fla., "to make certain that they (the Pakistanis) realized they should stop shooting."

The Pakistani border patrol forces then shot back down on the joint location of the U.S.-Afghan patrol. "The whole thing lasted five minutes," Smith said.

The Pakistani authorities, on the other hand, say that the helicopters were flying inside Pakistan's airspace and were driven off by the fire.

Zardari, ridiculously and appeasingly, said at the UN that his forces only fire flares to warn of such incursions. If Zardari said the sky was blue I'd look up to check - the man should stick to making passes at Sarah Palin and give up trying to run his country. He's not really in charge anyway, General Kayani is. The Pakistani military have made it clear that any incursions will be stopped "at all costs" and that they will open fire, and they have the backing of over 80% of the populace to do so. Now the US is finally admitting that they meant it.

What now?

Well, for one thing this clash of policies is one of the main reasons I am pretty much convinced, now, that Afghanistan is becoming an untenable occupation for the US and its Western allies. There’s not enough troops to provide stability for long enough, even if there were there’s not enough reconstruction and reconcilliation and even if there was there’s not enough regional goodwill for American adventurism. And, there's no alternative to Pakistani supply routes if McCain and the neocons in the Bush administration insist on playing silly buggers with Russia. I've always supported the invasion of Afghanistan so that's not an analysis I aprticularly want to make, but I set out my current reasoning, along with a little hope for the future, here.

Comments

[anderson]

"Zardari then called her "gorgeous" and said: "Now I know why the whole of America is crazy about you." Kind of makes you wish Zardari was a little more staunch a Muslim. It might have prevented him from slobbering like an idiot.