OFFER’ PAKISTAN CAN’T REFUSE’ - Eric Margolis

Secretary Gates’ claim that Pakistan needs counter-insurgency training by US Special Forces is preposterous. This writer has repeatedly been in combat in Kashmir and on the Siachen Glacier with Pakistani regulars and special forces. As a former soldier and veteran war correspondent, I can attest that Pakistan’s 619,000-man armed forces, though poorly equipped due to US embargos, are among the world’s toughest, most capable and best trained.

Pakistan’s soldiers hardly need counter-insurgency training from a nation that suffered the humiliation of Vietnam and has failed to defeat guerillas in Afghanistan or Iraq. Nor do NATO troops in Afghanistan from Canada, the Netherlands or Britain, whom Secretary Gates recently ignorantly dismissed as lacking training in irregular warfare.

The Bush Administration should think deeply before committing US forces to a third conflict, this time against a powerful nation of 165 million seething with unrest, violence, and anti-Americanism.