The United States and Pakistan have formed a “joint counterterrorism task force” this month to oversee operations related to the ongoing war on terror.
“This joint group is intended to satisfy Pakistani demands that the United States curb its unilateral intelligence operations,” opinion writer and novelist David Ignatius wrote in The Washington Post.
“One goal will be quicker action to avoid tipping off the enemy- as seemed to happen between the May 19 delivery of CIA intelligence about two Taliban bomb factories in the tribal areas and the June 4 Pakistani assault,” he noted as he wrote about what one should expect from the “odd couple”- the US and Pakistan- going forward.
Ignatius also pointed out that while the Pakistanis plan to end the Central Intelligence Agency’s use of the Shamsi air base in southwest Pakistan as a staging area for drone attacks, “they can’t (and won’t) stop Predator missions that originate in Afghanistan.”
Meanwhile, the United States will keep supplying F-16s and may replace two P-3 Orion surveillance planes destroyed in a terrorist attack in Karachi last month, he added.
Pakistani cooperation with US Special Forces will continue, but on a less visible scale, said Ignatius, adding that the Pakistanis will take over what had been a joint training mission for the Frontier Corps at Warsak, northwest of Peshawar.
“But over the next few months, the overall US Special Forces presence will probably return to roughly what it was before the recent flap,” he maintained.
Ignatius also said that the United States will consult Pakistan as it seeks a political settlement in Afghanistan, adding that a team working for Marc Grossman, the US Special Representative overseeing those negotiations, recently visited Islamabad to brief officials there.
“These arrangements aren’t ideal from the U.S. standpoint, but they should allow continued cooperation against a terrorist adversary that threatens both countries. And over the long run, this new framework is better than a domineering US approach that has the effect of blowing up Pakistan,” he concluded. (ANI)
