War On You: Breaking Alternative News

February 4, 2010

Yesterday came news of a bomb attack on a road convoy near a school in Pakistan. On the surface, this is nothing out of the ordinary — reports of bombings in Pakistan come thick and fast, particularly in the lawless and fraught North-West Frontier Province, where the latest attack took place.But this was different. The initial reports had it that “three westerners” were among the ten people killed. First, officials said they were journalists, then aid workers. It later emerged that they were US soldiers.

Which raises the question — what were these soldiers doing there? Officially, there are no US troops stationed in Pakistan. But the Daily Times, a Pakistani newspaper, reports:

According to a statement by the US embassy in Islamabad, the US troops killed in the attack were training FC [Frontier Corps] soldiers on a request by the Pakistani government.

It is reported that the Americans have given the Frontier Corps programme $43.8m worth of equipment. And US officials say Washington is ready to spend up to $400m on upgrading the corps. This is on top of the $1.5bn that Washington gives Islamabad each year by way of straightforward (non-military) aid. So the Frontier Corps assistance is a way of propping up the Pakistani military, rather than a secret US offensive. Nonetheless, the programme has been conducted behind the scenes.

I have blogged before about the lack of clarity around exactly what US policy in Pakistan entails, and this programme is a case in point. It might not be secret, but it is certainly not transparent. The Toronto Star reports: “Most Pakistanis interviewed Wednesday had no idea US soldiers were stationed in the north-west.”

The administration is reluctant to shout about the policy because the public is overwhelmingly opposed to any US involvement in Pakistan at all. A poll last October found that 80 per cent of Pakistanis were opposed to the idea of US assistance in fighting the Taliban.

For President Asif Ali Zardari’s government, the timing could not be worse. A scandal recently erupted over the presence of the US security contractor Blackwater in Pakistan. Both governments have denied it, but amid the media storm, evidence is growing that the firm is indeed operating in the country.

Islamabad has also been inconsistent about the US drone attacks taking place in Waziristan, which have claimed the lives of more than 600 people in the past year. While the government outwardly criticises every attack, the drone assaults are reportedly launched from a Pakistani military base in Balochistan.

It is unclear whether the Taliban deliberately targeted the convoy or whether the killing of the US soldiers was a coincidence, but either way, they have scored an unexpected victory by sending the covert military strategy hurtling into the public eye, further destabilising the already wobbling Islamabad government.