"Two days out is as good as a year out."
No.
"Two days" is two days. The fall of Kunduz was INEVITABLE at that point, (Rumsfeld's strategy of Special Ops and close air support for allied Northern Alliance fighters was completely successful), and the allies --- and our guys --- were *eager* to capture the bad guys holed up at Kunduz (where the Taliban had concentrated it's command and control for the entire Northern front, and where al Qaeda fighters had FLOCKED to be in on what they had anticipated would be an American defeat, and Pakistan's I.S.I. had it's most experienced Taliban 'handlers'.)
They were trapped. The front collapsed so rapidly on them that there were no overland routes remaining for their mass escape. Air was the only way for large numbers of the fighters to escape --- and the US Air Force had total control of the air. Pakistan had to receive *permission* to fly their military transports in.
"What would you do, shoot down Pakistani military transports?"
Yes, if necessary. But that would never have been necessary because they KNEW THEY COULDN'T FLY INTO Afghan air space without *explicit* permission from the US. (No one is that crazy....)
"We needed the Pakistanis to even be able to deploy to the area."
Irrelevant. We *already* had overflight rights granted by Pakistan --- possibly due in large part to the leader of their I.S.I. being CAUGHT red-handed wiring $100,000 cash to Mohammed Atta the VERY WEEK of the 9-11 attacks! (Note: he was having breakfast at the CIA the morning of the 9-11 attacks... and later that day met with Cheney.) His duplicity with Mohammed Atta made headlines in the world's press within the week! But, at this point in time, the Taliban were collapsing everywhere, and we had basing rights in other South Asian countries as well as Pak overflight (Pak *never* gave us basing rights.)
Anyway... we SURE didn't need Pakistan's 'permission' to capture enemy fighters holed-up in Afghanistan... and, if some of the Taliban, and some of Pakistan's military, were captured by our forces while FIGHTING IN AFGHANISTAN AGAINST OUR GUYS... well, we could always sort out what we wanted to do with them (including the option of trading them back to Pakistan) AFTER we had them in our hands, and KNEW FOR SURE who was who.
Presumably, no sane person would have wanted to let the Taliban's leaders, and al Qaeda fighters, go. (Although we might have wanted to cut some sort of deal with the Pak.'s)
"And if we did check, we would be largely dependent on the Pakistanis for the information"
That doesn't even make sense! (Once in the custody of our military, or at GITMO or where ever... we could verify identities.) No way in HELL we would rely upon Pakistan to 'tell us who was whom'. :-) |
