The Times of India
US was ready for firefight with Pakistan during Abbottabad raid
By Chidanand Rajghatta, TNN
WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama insisted American commandos raiding deep inside Pakistan on the Osama bin Laden mission have enough firepower to shoot their way out in case of a confrontation with Pakistani forces it has been revealed, even as Washington continued to get tough with Islamabad over its dodgy policy on terrorism.
Amid worsening ties with its one-time ally, the Obama administration also signaled on Monday that it was not worried about Pakistan's ability to interdict the American supply route to Afghanistan because the US was ready with alternate plans. Washington also unleashed another Drone strike inside Pakistan on Tuesday, the second since it killed bin Laden, amid continued rants from Islamabad about violation of its sovereignty.
The White House capped the blunt, no-holds-barred American response to Islamabad's tirade by asserting that it will not apologize for its raid to nail bin Laden even as the public mood in the US turned sour on Pakistan, with demands that the Obama administration cease or suspend all aid to a country seen as fostering terrorism.
But the most surprising development is the disclosure by US officials, through two news outlets, that President Obama was willing to risk a confrontation with Pakistan by ordering an increase in force size to protect the core group of Navy Seals who went in to get bin Laden. Two dozen Navy Seals in two choppers were said to be involved in the raid on bin Laden's lair, but two addition choppers with more than 50 personnel provided perimeter cover in case of a Pakistani reaction.
"Their instructions were to avoid any confrontation if at all possible. But if they had to return fire to get out, they were authorized to do it," one US official was quoted as saying in the New York Times. A Time magazine blog had earlier quoted the President as telling operational planners, "I don't want you to plan for an option that doesn't allow you to fight your way out."
The US has gotten into occasional firefights with Pakistani troops -- many of whose officer corps are US-trained -- on the Afghan border, but Washington's directive during the raid is illustrative of how much the rift between the two sides has widened. US military personnel who have served in the Af-Pak theatre often speak of Pakistani perfidy in fostering militants who attack American and Nato forces in Afghanistan even as Islamabad claims to be an ally in the war on terror.
The gradual realization in Washington of this "two-faced" Pakistani policy has led to calls for suspension of aid to Islamabad from a range of US lawmakers and analysts. On Monday, Senator Diane Feinstein, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, broke ranks with her colleagues John Kerry and Richard Lugar, in questioning aid to Pakistan. "Either we're going to be allies in fighting terror, or the relationship makes less and less sense to me," Feinstein told reporters, adding, "...to enable him(bin Laden) to live in Pakistan in a military community for six years, I just don't believe it was done without some form of complicity."
Asked about the support Pakistan was getting from Kerry and Lugar, who are inclined to give Pakistan the benefit of doubt and whose eponymous bill funnels $ 1.5 billion annually to Islamabad, Feinstein said, "I understand that. I feel a little differently."
Kerry and Lugar are among a small group of lawmakers who are concerned with, among other things, Pakistan's ability to choke US supply route to its 140,000 troops in Afghanistan. But Obama administration officials indicated on Monday that they had factored in that possibility as they turned the heat on Pakistan to change course.
"We're confident that we're not dependent upon any particular single thread, and we can continue to supply the Afghanistan effort," US undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics Ashton Carter told a wire service.
The Obama administration's tough posture towards Pakistan, a shifty ally that was mollycoddled by previous administrations despite its fostering of terrorism, has sent the country rushing to seek solace from China, its "all-weather friend." After a defiant speech in Parliament on Monday in which lavished praise on Beijing while twitting Washington, Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousef Raza Gilani scheduled a four-day visit to China starting May 17.
Some US analysts were not impressed. Tom Ricks, a foreign policy expert who writes the "Best Defense" blog, suggested that Washington needs to have "a short-term plan that temporarily keeps us close to Pakistan, followed by a much different long-run strategy that cuts us loose from this wreck of a state."
"If Pakistan wants to retaliate by allying with China -- knock yourselves out, fellas," he sneered.
Islamabad's message to the Obama administration that it was willing to provide access to bin Laden three widows did little to assuage anger in Washington over what is widely seen here as Pakistan's perfidy.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/US-was-ready-for-firefight-with-Pakistan-during-Abbottabad-raid/articleshow/8225020.cms
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