Lindsey Graham Considers Military Action Against Pakistan

Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- A Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee said Sunday that the U.S. should consider military action against Pakistan if it continues to support terrorist attacks against American troops in Afghanistan.

"The sovereign nation of Pakistan is engaging in hostile acts against the United States and our ally Afghanistan that must cease, Sen. Lindsey Graham told "Fox News Sunday."

He said if experts decided that the U.S. needs to "elevate its response," he was confident there would be strong bipartisan support in Congress for such action.

Graham did not call for military action but said "all options" should be considered. He said assistance to Pakistan should be reconfigured and that the U.S. should no longer designate an amount of aid for Pakistan but have a more "transactional relationship" with the country.

"They're killing American soldiers," he said. "If they continue to embrace terrorism as a part of their national strategy, we're going to have to put all options on the table, including defending our troops."

In testimony last week to Graham's committee, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, said Pakistan's powerful intelligence agency had backed extremists in planning and executing the assault on the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan and a truck bomb attack that wounded 77 American soldiers. Both occurred this month.

Mullen contended that the Haqqani insurgent network "acts as a veritable arm" of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency as it undermined U.S.-Pakistan relations, already tenuous because of the war in Afghanistan. Pakistan exports violence, Mullen said, and threatens any success in the 10-year-old war.

Graham said Pakistan does cooperate with the U.S. in actions against al-Qaida. But he said the Pakistani military feels threatened by a democracy in Afghanistan and is betting that the Taliban will come back there.

"The best solution is for Pakistan to fight all forms of terrorism, embrace working with us so that we can deal with terrorism along their border, because it is the biggest threat to stability," he said. "But Pakistan is terrorism itself. They have made a tremendous miscalculation."

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Comments

[VietnamVeteran]

08:05 PM on 10/04/2011

Dear taxpayer, the DoD just spent one half billion $$$$$ on new power plant in Afganistan. I know this article is about Pakistan but let's spreaad around the outrage.

Berger/Cummins J.V., Washington, D.C. (W912BU-11-D-0011); IAP Worldwide Services, Panama City, Fla. (W912BU-11-D-0012); and Kellogg Brown & Root Services, Inc., Fort Knox, Ky. (W912BU-11-D-0013); were awarded a $490,000,000 firm-fixed-price multiple-award-task-order contract. The award will provide for the necessary services to provide power plant and electrical services for contingency operations in Afghanistan. Work location will be determined

[COPESTIR3]

10:18 AM on 09/28/2011

Maybe that is where the weapons of mass destruction are hidden.

[VictorLudorum]

08:34 AM on 09/28/2011

then comes the Drone [ Fat Hornet] and The Dengue [ A Mosquito with Killing Sting ] ...................................................................

[VictorLudorum]

08:06 AM on 09/28/2011

now ! all the security affairs in Pakistan are connected to political parties that joined the illicit trade mafias but these groups are ordinary and the amount is 10 000 Rs . The next sum is in lacks 100 000 Rs and in those days when the Feild Marshal who took charge created these illicit rattling in formal cooperation with The British Companies that go back straight to Opium Wars and divide the world .They have blocked Globalisation because they are busy themselves .. The 10 000 Rs which has homogenic-ised between India and Pakistan that fought a 1965 Sept 9 war amongst and time and again both blame each other for state controlled terrorism etc but have made the SAPTA of border trade where Politicians fail infront of constant immigration from India and smuggling from both sides including a chemical supplied by india that makes the Heroine drug introduced by Gen Zia's junta chiefs whose factories run in Kohistan ..! The next Sum is Crore 100 00 000 Rs and nobody has that sum which shales the King of Saudi Arabias interest! Now kiss my foot!

[VictorLudorum]

07:54 AM on 09/28/2011

USA is physically economically totally educationally incharge of pakistan except what pakistan is not incharge of itself..but that is not haqqani...... both countries leaders cannot steer thier nations, and support detraction.....

[jabidi]

12:55 PM on 09/27/2011

It all explained here:

http://paktribune.com/news/Dengue-fever-CIAs-bio-attack-on-Pak-suspected-243906.html

[kaprock]

11:44 AM on 09/27/2011

I'm no particular fan of Lindsay Graham but what are we waiting for? Pakistan is a supposed ally that spares no opportunity to give aid comfort and material support to any available adversary and they do it all funded by considerable US foreign aid. No one wants needs or can afford another war but more liberal use of armed drones could go a long way toward their discouragement.

[Bartolo27]

08:01 AM on 09/29/2011

There is one hundred million Pakis and they have nuclear weapons. THAT'S THE PROBLEM
kaprock

[hangdogit]

10:11 PM on 09/26/2011

Well, it could be viewed as a kind of tiny improvement -- at least he doesn't want to shell Ft Sumter again.

And what irony! The South is bitter to this day -- and probably forevermore -- about the thrashing they received at the hands of the US Armed Forces. Yet that region is the biggest supporter of US military action.

It all reminds me of those experienced doctors who insists on preserving 36-hour shifts for interns because...well...they had to endure it. And if it was good enough for them...

On a more serious note, schizoid Pakistan is US public frenemy number one -- an unstable nuclear power. Which side are they on? Both!

[joenangr]

08:40 PM on 09/26/2011

It's great how the Republicans always want to use the "WE" when they want to start another "War" or will it be another "Police Action" and HOW WILL IT BE PAYED FOR? Will the money they will use, be THEIRS and not OURS as in the taxes taken by our Gov't from the citizens of "US" and should be used for the citizens of the United States and not fund another Foreign personal conflict these idiots like Linsey Graham and his followers, They Love to get the US into wars but never OUT of them. I guess it's their way of paying back their BASE for keeping them in office. Remember "Wars Don't Start By Themselves". Remember George Bush and Iraq. It will All Come Back to YOU and the Problems He Left Us In. We don't hear much from Him Any More. Do We ?

[Charles Queen]

07:55 PM on 09/26/2011

Yep,Pakistan is all up in arms over the latest things we have accused them of doing and or being,they also don't like not getting those billions they were getting every year drom us which we should have never started doing to begin with.No,I'm against going to war with them,this guy is a nut case like most of those in washington seem to be anymore.The last thing in the world is to start up aniother war with Pakistan now.Let them keep having their diplomatic talks and leave it at that.They know that we know that they have been playing both sides for a long time and they don't like it

[Mike Munro]

06:47 PM on 09/26/2011

Up against the wall Linsey

[Charles Queen]

06:09 PM on 09/26/2011

Here we go again.It's bad enough their going to send another 800 so called trainers to afghanastan and now this nut case wants to start a war in Pakistan.Hey,Im' all for a war if it's for the right reasons but this is not one of them.We don't need to get into any more wars,we need to do whatever it takes to get our companys etc,back home instead of them all being overseas along with all of the jobs they took with them.We need to build our country back up all the way around especialy financially and economicaly so.Another war though is defintely not going to float this time and I expect the majority of the U.N. will agree with it this time

[oldandfoolish]

03:14 PM on 09/26/2011

If Pakistan needs to be attacked, why not Somalia? How about Iran? The list goes on. We cannot keep attacking every nation in which terrorists live. Have we not learned the lesson? This idea of attacking Pakistan scares Wall Street and we are going into Depression, which maybe is his idea of helping a Republican presidential candidate. Hope not.

[Robert Chute]

01:37 PM on 09/30/2011

We need to pull out of the nations we are already in, time to take our nose out of everyone's business. and time to stop foreign aid etc.

[sempdog]

03:09 PM on 09/26/2011

Sen. Graham is just another war lover trying to keep his precious South Carolina bases milking the DOD cash cow. Fort Jackson and Parris Island et al, must drain a fair bit of loot from our tax coffers. Of course it would be bad form to suggest that we leave Iraq and Afghanistan; ASAP.
Maybe Graham would favor a little "Hearts and Minds" sweep across Pakistan, so we can get our hands on their Nukes.

[madbonger618]

02:38 PM on 09/26/2011

Graham, Lieberman and McCain should all leave their brains to science. They clearly have problems.