MB Civic

By David Ignatius | Tuesday, July 31, 2007 | The Washington Post

“…The United States can begin to take action now against al-Qaeda’s new haven. Or we can wait, and hope that we don’t get hit again. The biggest danger in waiting is that if retaliation proves necessary later, it could be ill-planned and heavy-handed — precisely what got us in trouble in Iraq.”

A plan for “rolling up” the camps in Pakistan, devised by former CIA officer Henry Crumpton, a veteran of the early campaign in Afghanistan, is outlined. The basic idea would be to use local tribal groups as proxy forces with US supervision, in exchange for US support for life-changing projects like solar panels and windmills to provide electricity for their isolated and primitive mountain villages. Given the fact that more than 100 tribal leaders have been killed by al-Qaeda since 2002 in their campaign to establish a safe haven and local dominance, the tribal groups – driven by a centuries-old code of eye-for-eye revenge – would have a convincing motive to cooperate…BS

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/30/AR2007073001271_pf.html