Strategies Against the Taliban

In Gerald's Internet Anthropologist he asserts that the true threat to the Taliban control over the region comes not in the form of human-piloted craft, such as the F-22 or F-117, but from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), such as the MQ-9 Reaper. These hunter-destroyer surveillance craft utilizes a variety of weapons including the GBU-12 Paveway II laser-guided bomb and the AGM-114 Hellfire II air-to-ground missiles. Tests are underway to allow for the addition of the AIM-92 Stinger air-to-air missiles and GBU-38 JDAM bombs.

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani called on the United States to stop using drones, such as the MQ-9 Reaper against Taliban fighters on Pakistani territory.

"I want to put on record that we do not have any agreement between the government of the United States and the government of Pakistan,"

Gilani said.

Gilani's statement was in response to U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, part of the Obama Administration. Gates said both President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama had made clear they would continue to pursue the course of action leading to the Taliban crossing the boarder into Pakistan.

"Has that decision been transmitted to the Pakistan government?"

asked Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

"Yes, sir,"

Gates said. In parallel, Asif Ali Zardari, the president of Pakistan, is urging Washington to send more money and equipment to fight extremists. In an opinion piece in today's Washington Post, he chided critics in the United States for questioning Pakistan's commitment to the war on terrorism.

"With all due respect, we need no lectures on our commitment," he wrote. "This is our war. It is our children and wives who are dying."

In this comment it is clear that although the new administration has taken over the bureacratic military apparatus of the United States pressing "change," it seems that change has not come in the military operations of Pakistan. According to the official foreign policies of the Obama administration,

"Obama and Biden will increase nonmilitary aid to Pakistan and hold them accountable for security in the border region with Afghanistan."

It seems then that while the administrative policies including economics, business management, energy, and the environment, military strategy and tactics remain at the forefront of any administration regards of ideology.