"Pakistan said it has deployed over 100,000 troops along some 2,000 kilometers [of its] border with Afghanistan...." [22]
Four days before, local media reported that NATO forces fired mortar rounds across the border from Afghanistan into Pakistan, injuring five civilians, two critically, and severely damaging a mosque. [23]
The day before McChrystal's visit to Pakistan, Reuters reported that "The CIA has received authorization to target a wider range of targets in Pakistan with its drone-guided missiles, despite national discontent on [the] growing civilian death toll." [24]
In addition to expanding a military nexus throughout Eurasia and beyond, the Afghan war has provided the Pentagon other opportunities as well.
U.S. Marine Corps Brigadier General Glenn Walters spoke at an Institute for Defense and Government Advancement conference on the subject of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), stating that "Drones are used from Yemen to Pakistan, but most of the demand is related to the surge of U.S. forces in Afghanistan."
In 2001, the year of the invasion of Afghanistan, the U.S. had approximately 200 drones in its arsenal. It now has 6,000 and according to the Marine general, in two years "We'll have 8,000 UAVs...." [25] A twentyfold increase.
The decade of the drone [26] has not been limited to Pakistan and Yemen, as the lethal missile-wielding unmanned aircraft have also been used in Somalia and Iraq, and late last year U.S. Africa Command deployed the most deadly of all drones - the Reaper - to the nation of Seychelles along with over 100 military personnel, thereby acquiring the Pentagon's second major military installation in Africa.
On May 6 "NATO representatives from around the world" visited the Camp Atterbury Joint Maneuver Training Center in the American state of Indiana to observe drone flight tests. [27]
The ongoing war in Afghanistan has also been used, particularly by current U.S. and NATO commander McChrystal, former head of Joint Special Operations Command, to qualitatively transform U.S. military doctrine and practice worldwide with an emphasis on counterinsurgency and the expanded use of special forces not seen in several decades.
Last week U.S. Army Chief of Staff General George Casey laid stress on the counterinsurgency role of his branch of the armed services, stating "the Army has to posture itself and train to operate across the spectrum." [28] (On May 10 Casey hosted over a hundred senior military leaders from more than 24 African nations at an African Land Forces Summit at the Pentagon.)
On May 6 it was reported that the head of Special Operations Command
Europe and director of Special Operations, U.S. European Command - Air Force Major General Frank Kisner - would be transferred to the post of commander of NATO international special forces operations at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Special Operations Headquarters in Brussels.
NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Transformation in Norfolk, Virginia, French Air Force General Stephane Abrial - given that post when France reintegrated into NATO military command structures last year - lately spoke of the Alliance's current transformation, defining it as centered on "ensuring that NATO has the necessary means to be able to deploy forces quickly and for them to be able to stay in theater for a long time...." [29] The Afghan war is the prototype of the missions he spoke about.
From May 10-13 over "550 defense ministers, chief of staffs and senior military officials from 82 countries across the globe" gathered in Amman, Jordan for a major Special Operations Forces Symposium and Exposition (SOFEX) event, the Middle East Special Operations Commanders Conference.
The four-day meeting was "designed with a view to enhance the capabilities of Special Operations Forces around the world to network for global security and combat terrorism.
"High-ranking military officers from Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan and the United States delivered speeches that covered several topics, including war-fighting operations to home defense missions, counterterrorist operations, urban warfare and dismounted close combat."
The chief of U.S. Special Operations Command Central (responsible for Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and Yemen), Major General Charles Cleveland, "highlighted the role of special operation forces in modern wars." [30]
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