THE BILL PRESS SHOW

What are American Troops Doing in Pakistan?

It was sad to learn of the death of three American soldiers in Pakistan.

Sad news, but also curious. What are American troops doing on the ground in Pakistan?

Congress has never voted to send troops to Pakistan.

We, the American people have never been told about troops in Pakistan.

In fact, when President Obama sent more troops to Afghanistan, we were told there were no troops being sent to Pakistan.

So, now the question is: How many American troops are in Pakistan? Hundreds? Thousands?

And what are they doing there? Are they gathering intelligence? Are they training the Pakistani Army? Are they identifying targets for drone missiles? Are they combat troops?

I asked Press Secretary Robert Gibbs those questions at Thursday’s White House Press Briefing, but didn’t get any answer.

Maybe, in the fight against al Qaeda, it’s important to have American troops in Pakistan. But surely, if we’re fighting three wars, not two – if in addition to Iraq and Afghanistan – we’re also fighting a war in Pakistan…Surely, we the American people have a right to know.

That’s my parting shot for today.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 5th, 2010 at 8:56 am and is filed under BILL BLOG. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.