U.S. test-drives scary new war in Pakistan

Trucks carrying fuel for the American-led war in Afghanistan, burning in Pakistan. Photo: AP)Yesterday, the Pakistani government cut off America's vital supply into Afghanistan, and today militants in Pakistan set fire to at least 27 trucks carrying fuel for Operation Enduring Freedom. It's fair to say that Pakistan is fed up with our drone strikes in their country and our airstrikes in "hot pursuit" of militants and our new warning that we could start ground operations there at any time.This is all being done in the name of the supposedly global war on terror, but as Rachel Maddow said on the show last night, borders matter:"If the United States decides that where it wants to fight happens to be in your country, the idea of what we're doing may transcend national boundaries, but the fighting doesn't. The fighting happens in specific places. If what's going on with this escalation that no one is talking about is that the war in Afghanistan is sort of officially expanding into Pakistan, then this isn't just ho-hum, another chapter in the global war that's everywhere."This is Laos and Cambodia 1970. I don't care if people want to talk about 'AfPak' like it's a single place, about Pakistan being an extension of the existing war. What this really is, is war in another country. It is a another war -- Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan."No matter how much we like to say, 'Oh, we're just here to help,' you know what? They do not want us there. And so it's ultimately going to be a war, not with, but against a country that has got a government, that has got an army, that has got a population of over 160 million people, more than half the population of our country. "They've also got a global diaspora of people from there all over the world, who, in some sense, think of their country as in a war with America. And oh, yes, Pakistan has nuclear weapons. "What seems to be going on right now is that the U.S. officials and military leaders are testing the idea of the war in Afghanistan being expanded into Pakistan. And they're doing it quietly. "But they're talking about it as if it's unavoidable, as if it's a natural extension of what it is we're already doing in the other war. If that is what's happening - if that is what's happening, if they're test driving, floating this idea of the war expanding into Pakistan, it is not a secret, and it is not going to be a secret. I guarantee it. I don't plan on being quiet about it. In fact, I plan on screaming bloody murder about it."[America testing war in Pakistan]