Should the US target Pakistan Intelligence Service?

The US seems to have definitive evidence that the Pakistan Intelligence Service ISI are supporting the Taliban in Afghanistan. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-15027923

Should the US take direct action against the ISI?

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Reply 1

Aj12

If they do then things will get ten times worse in Afghanistan

Reply 2

JonathanNorth

The US and other ISAF forces should pull out of Afghanistan altogether.

Reply 3

TheSurgeon345

The US has supported more terrorist groups in the past than anyone else

Reply 4

TheSurgeon345

Have you forgotten that the taliban was created with US money and weapons?

Reply 5

Aj12

Original post by TheSurgeon345

Have you forgotten that the taliban was created with US money and weapons?

No they weren't. The already existing Mujhadeen was armed and trained by the CIA, the Taliban came in around the late 90's

Reply 6

TheSurgeon345

Original post by Aj12

No they weren't. The already existing Mujhadeen was armed and trained by the CIA, the Taliban came in around the late 90's

The Taliban were the Mujahideen

Reply 7

TheSurgeon345

Original post by Aj12

No they weren't. The already existing Mujhadeen was armed and trained by the CIA, the Taliban came in around the late 90's

Where do you think they got all their weapons?

Reply 8

Aj12

Original post by TheSurgeon345

The Taliban were the Mujahideen

No they aren't. The Taliban is not one group either.

Reply 9

TheSurgeon345

Original post by Aj12

No they aren't. The Taliban is not one group either.

I don't understand why you think this. The taliban is all mad up of those who fought against the Russians.

The Taliban is one group, but after in-fighting etc they splintered off into different groups. When they were in charge of Afghanistan, they were one political party

Reply 10

Aj12

Original post by TheSurgeon345

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11451718

The Taliban emerged in the early 1990s in northern Pakistan following the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan.
A predominantly Pashtun movement, the Taliban came to prominence in Afghanistan in the autumn of 1994.

The best-known mujahideen were the various loosely aligned Afghan opposition groups, which initially rebelled against the incumbent pro-Soviet Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA) government during the late 1970s. At the DRA's request, the Soviet Union intervened. The mujahideen then fought against Soviet and DRA troops during the Soviet war in Afghanistan. After the Soviet Union pulled out of the conflict in the late 1980s the mujahideen fought each other in the subsequent Afghan Civil War.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mujahideen

The Taliban and Mujahideen are two different groups

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/apr/28/afghanistan-mujahideen-taliban

Reply 11

B-Man.

That would be a declaration of war and Pakistan would have to retaliate. You need to recognise the level of damage that Pakistan can do to US and NATO troops in Afghanistan. They can't afford that.

If Mullen has conclusive proof, then he should present it.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 12

TheSurgeon345

Original post by B-Man.

He won't just like the US didn't present any evidence of Bin Laden's involvement in 9/11. The USA says something and expects everyone to believe them

Reply 13

IamSerious

Original post by Aj12

If they do then things will get ten times worse in Afghanistan

why?

Reply 14

Aj12

Original post by IamSerious

why?

The ISI has a lot of connections in Afghanistan, they are vital to any peace process. Were the ISI to give these groups their full support rather than just protecting certain groups the insurgency there would get far worse for the Americans.

Reply 15

Suetonius

Original post by Maker

The ISI has been supporting the Taliban as part of its cynical expansionist projects (in both Afghanistan and Kashmir) for the best part of twenty years. The fact that intelligence officers have been found in al-Qaeda's, and other militant groups', training camps is testament to this. As well as the fact that Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda's leader and staunch ally of the Taliban, was being sheltered in a mansion in a Pakistani military town. These same people are also within touching distance of vast stockpiles of nuclear weapons. All at the same time as their people are suffering as a consequence of regular natural disasters, endemic poverty and theocratic terrorism. Pakistan can suck my toe.

Reply 16

Suetonius

Original post by TheSurgeon345

I don't understand why you think this. The taliban is all mad up of those who fought against the Russians.

As are all of those within Gulbaddin Hekmatyar's fundamentalist group (the 'Hezb e-Islami'), the Haqqani network, even members of the Salafi GSPC in Algeria. Throw in virtually every person and group who make up the Northern Alliance, as well as thousands of people with no affiliation to any militant group whatsoever today, and you have the Afghan mujahideen. People who use the Taliban and the anti-Soviet mujahideen interchangably immediately reveal that they don't know what they're talking about. Indeed, the mujahideen's main source of weaponry and finance was not the United States at all, but - yet again - an expansionist, fervently Islamist Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia.

Reply 17

DYKWIA

I'm of two minds. I want our country to help bring stability to the middle-east, but at the same time it costs us so much in taxes and if I'm being selfish I'd rather we stop being the world police and get the rest of the world to pull their weight a little.

Original post by TheSurgeon345

The US has supported more terrorist groups in the past than anyone else

Uh huh, and you got any evidence to back up this ridiculous claim?

Reply 18

Suetonius

Original post by DYKWIA

Uh huh, and you got any evidence to back up this ridiculous claim?

To be frank, the United States did support probably the most violent terrorist group in recent history - the Contra "rebels" in Nicaragua. As well as engaging for several decades in state-sponsored terrorism against Cuba. The U.S. also supported the Khmer Rouge's insurrection, after Vietnam removed them from power.