The Toll - 11/29/09 - Pakistan's Nukes Change Hands

President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan handed control of the nation’s nuclear arsenal over to Prime Minister Yusaf Raza Gillani on Friday night. Zardari’s move confirmed the uncertainty of his political future as an amnesty that has shielded him from prosecution for corruption expired today.

Gillani does not appear to be that solid either. In 2001 he was sentenced to prison for corruption and served six years. Last July he gave a major speech in which he appeared visibly confused, although the blame for his poor showing was later attributed to his staff.

It’s clear, however, that the political situation has become less stable and, undoubtedly the west is hoping that elements of the military that are sympathetic to the insurgency do not take advantage of the leadership void to stage a coup.

Meanwhile, the U.S. president is expected to announce an additional troop surge in Afghanistan of about 30,000 on Tuesday evening. This will bring the number of our military personnel to around 100,000, up from 30,000 when Obama took office. The president will make a case for the temporary nature of the surge and will emphasize an exit strategy that is expected to start reducing the number of troops within two to three years.

It was not long ago, however, that General McChrystal told a London audience that it would take more than five years to accomplish our mission. Past would-be conquerors from Alexander the Great to the U.S.S.R. might feel that even that is optimistic.

Perhaps, though, after eight years, America will finally find out on Tuesday evening exactly what our objective is.

The Department of Defense, last week, released the obituaries of seven military personnel killed in Afghanistan, ranging in age from 19 to 36. Five of the fallen heroes were felled by improvised explosive devices.

According to the website icasualties.org, total U.S. deaths in Afghanistan now stand at 928. It should be noted that nearly one-third of these deaths occurred just since General McChrystal took over in June of this year.

It might also be significant that McChrystal previously ran an outfit called the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) which was formed after 9/11 and which reported directly to Dick Cheney. The mission of the JSOC, which was kept secret from Congress, was to seek out high value targets and terminate them. In short it was an assassination program.

In 2008, McChrystal was replaced by Admiral William H. McRaven who then cancelled the program earlier this year. Leon Edward Panetta became the 19th Director of the Central Intelligence Agency on February 13, 2009 and soon thereafter news of the JSOC’s mission leaked out.

Panetta said that it had never gotten off the ground but other evidence says otherwise. First, it seems most unlikely that in eight long years the program never moved forward. Second, Admiral McRaven had already been quoted in the New York Times, saying that the program was terminated because it was causing too many “collateral deaths,” meaning that innocent civilians were being killed. And finally, Pulitzer-Prize-winning investigative reporter Seymour Hersh backed up McRaven’s version at a symposium in March saying that it was the subject of a book he was writing.

This information concerning McChrystal’s background and the relatively high level of U.S. deaths since he arrived in Afghanistan is significant, obviously, because he will be directing the escalation of the war. The safety of our troops will basically be in his hands.

Meanwhile, the Department of Defense also released the obituary of one 25-year-old soldier who was killed in Iraq. Total U.S. deaths in Iraq now amount to 4,367, according to icasualties.org.