From Flopping Aces

You might not have heard about it as most “reporters” seem more interested in the Balloon Boy hoax in Colorado!

Pakistan Launches Full-Scale Offensive
30,000 Troops Deploy In Militant Stronghold
By Karin Brulliard
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, October 18, 2009

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Oct. 17 — The Pakistani military launched a major ground offensive Saturday in the insurgent haven of South Waziristan, starting a much-awaited fight that could define the nation’s increasingly bloody domestic struggle against Islamist extremism.
…
After months of targeting South Waziristan with aerial strikes, Pakistani troops stormed the region from three sides, backed by jets and helicopter gunships, military officials said. A senior military official said soldiers were targeting areas held by the Mehsud tribe and expected to battle as many as 10,000 Taliban insurgents, bolstered by about 2,000 “foreign fighters.” The official did not specify their origins.
…
But a victory in South Waziristan would hardly end Pakistan’s militant scourge. Islamist insurgents have carved out other strongholds, such as in the southwestern province of Baluchistan, U.S. officials and Pakistani analysts have said.

“Something like this has to be sustained and not only go through North and South Waziristan, but, to be effective, it’s got to eliminate the spaces where militants are able to flee,” Hoffman said. “For Pakistan, unfortunately, it’s just a starting point.”

One other interesting paragraph from this story bears mentioning:

Although the Bush administration began the drone attacks, President Obama has authorized a sharp increase in the missile launches. U.S. intelligence officials have said that the CIA-directed attacks — more than 40 this year — have killed at least a dozen insurgent leaders.

Anyone remember this?

I guess Obama doesn’t have any problem air raiding Pakistanis!

also:

Rush Limbaugh Op-Ed in WSJ on NFL Racebaiting

CNN spent more time fact checking a Saturday Night Live skit critical of Obama than they did the phony quotes attributed to Rush.

Here’s Rush’s op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. You’ll want to read it all. Here’s the closing:

As I explained on my radio show, this spectacle is bigger than I am on several levels. There is a contempt in the news business, including the sportswriter community, for conservatives that reflects the blind hatred espoused by Messrs. Sharpton and Jackson. “Racism” is too often their sledgehammer. And it is being used to try to keep citizens who don’t share the left’s agenda from participating in the full array of opportunities this nation otherwise affords each of us. It was on display many years ago in an effort to smear Clarence Thomas with racist stereotypes and keep him off the Supreme Court. More recently, it was employed against patriotic citizens who attended town-hall meetings and tea-party protests.

These intimidation tactics are working and spreading, and they are a cancer on our society.