Afghan - Pakistan Border Dispute Raises Tensions

Tensions Rise Over Afghan, Pakistan Border Dispute -- Reuters

(Reuters) - Hundreds of Afghan university students in the eastern city of Jalalabad took to the streets on Monday to protest the building of a Pakistani military gate in what the Afghan defense ministry says is inside Afghanistan.

The incident is the latest in rising tensions between the two sides, whose attempts to lure the Taliban to the peace table have stalled amid their feuding.

Pakistani support for the Afghan peace process is considered essential because of the two countries' long, porous border and Islamabad's history of supporting militant groups.

Read more ....

Update #1: Tensions rise between Kabul and Islamabad -- Deutsche Welle
Update #2: Karzai Orders Removal Of Pakistani Border Gate -- Radio Free Europe
Update #3: Pak-Afghan armies resolve differences over border post -- News Pakistan

My Comment: It appears that this disagreement has been settled for now .... but the problem is still the same .... the border is not accurately marked, and there is little if any interest to reach some form of compromise.

Tensions Are Rising Between Pakistan And Afghanistan

Tensions Again Rising Between Afghanistan, Pakistan -- McClatchy News

KABUL, Afghanistan — The continuing rocket attacks from Pakistan on eastern provinces of the country have cost two high-ranking officials their jobs and threaten to further destabilize the country's fragile central government.

Early last month, Abdul Rahim Wardak, the country's defense minister, was forced to step down after members of parliament called for his removal because of the ongoing shelling. Interior Minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi, who controls the Afghan National Police, was also forced to step down.

Read more ....

My Comment: The Afghans know who is doing the bombing (i.e. it is the Pakistan military). The Americans believe otherwise (at least publicly), swallowing the Pakistani excuse that it is the Pakistan Taliban who are causing these incidents, and that the Pakistan military will be launching an ofensive to stop it at some future? date.

What's my take .... Pakistan will be doing something because of U.S. threats to intervene into Pakistan if these border incidents do not stop. As a further reminder .... the last time Pakistan permitted it's forces to fire into Afghanistan, this incident occurred souring relations for months.

Why President Obama Expanded The Scope Of Drone Attacks In Pakistan

Pakistan plans to seal parts of its border in an effort to stem incursions into Afghanistan by Taliban militants. Anjum Naveed/Associated Press

US Launched Air Attack Inside Pak After Verifying ISI-Taliban Link: Book -- Times Of India

NEW DELHI: The US national security agency (NSA) has intercepted messages to indicate that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence was in "complete coordination" with the Taliban, according to a US journalist.

New York Times' White House correspondent David E Sanger has claimed in his latest book that the US decision to launch air attacks inside Pakistan's western borders was taken after "one such high-level conversation was intercepted" in which a speaker said the Taliban was a "strategic asset" for Pakistan.

Read more ....

My Comment:The policies and appeasement of the past is finally catching up to Pakistan. The monster that they have created is now the monster that is closely tied to the Pakistani political and military establishment. American/Nato soldiers and Afghan civilians are just collateral damage to what the Taliban and their ISI allies want .... a situation that first President Bush and now President Obama find totally unacceptable. Hence the drone attacks.