No, not Gaza. And not Yemen. And not Iraq or Syria. Not even Afghanistan or Mali or Libya or Somalia. No, I mean Pakistan:
In Pakistan the military now claims nearly 600 Islamic terrorists killed after 47 days of combat in North Waziristan. So far 34 soldiers and an undetermined number of civilians (which could number in the hundreds) have also died. Thirty Islamic terrorists surrendered, but most fight to the death if unable to flee. Most of the Islamic terrorists there are believed to have fled the area and are seeking to set up operations elsewhere. The army is trying to minimize its own casualties by using air power (bombers and helicopter gunships) and artillery a lot. ...
The army claims the capture of over a hundred terrorist bases and large quantities of weapons and equipment. Over 30 bomb building workshops were found and destroyed along with components for building hundreds of bombs (from explosive vests to car and truck bombs). Dozens of car and trucks bombs were found and disabled. One of the truck bombs contained five tons of explosives. Also destroyed were three ammunition manufacturing facilities. Making your own ammo has long been common in the region but the Islamic terrorists here were doing it on a larger scale. Most of the dead Islamic terrorists were identified as foreigners, mostly from Central Asia and China. ...
North Waziristan itself is small, with an area of 4,700 square kilometers and a population of about 500,000. It is the only sanctuary Islamic terrorist groups like the Taliban and Haqqani Network have in the Pakistani tribal territories.
We have doubts that the Pakistanis are really going after the jihadis who target us (and Afghanistan) rather than just the jihadis who target Pakistan. Our drones are helping out, so at least some of the jihadis we are interested in are dying, I suppose.
Israel is no doubt low in the rankings for killing Arabs or Moslems. It's funny that only Israelis--who do try to avoid unnecessary deaths--are bitterly attacked for civilian deaths in the process of killing jihadis:
In recent weeks, recurring protests have popped up across Western Europe in relation to the military escalation in Israel and Gaza. More protests are planned in Western Europe for this weekend, including in London and Paris, where demonstrations have already turned violent.
This is from my OSAC email updates. It links to a report that I wouldn't be linkable in any case.
Yet Arab leaders have no problem with Israel taking the Hamas jihadis down a bit:
“I have never seen a situation like it, where you have so many Arab states acquiescing in the death and destruction in Gaza and the pummeling of Hamas,” [a Wilson Center scholar] said. “The silence is deafening.”
The contrast between outrage between dead Arabs killed by Arabs or placed at risk by Hamas when Israel technically pulls the trigger is amazing--although I'm not inclined to let the Global Left off the hook to blame Satan.
As for the Pakistani operation, we'll see if this is a real operation or just American Aid Theater--with whatever collateral damage necessary--designed to keep our money coming to Pakistan by going through the motions that we will pretend are sufficient.
