Sunny on Pakistan
Since he’s obviously very busy working on the Obama campaign, I thought I’d point you to Sunny’s way, way, too optimistic Comment is Free post on Pakistan. He finishes with the following,
But as one prominent media executive said under the condition of anonymity, it may take a few more big blasts like the Marriott before Pakistanis realise the true nature of the Taliban. And then a new direction will surely have to be found. As the country’s celebrated Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz once said, the danger is that Pakistan will continue as it has always done.
Unfortunately a world in which there are going to be more devastating bombings before public opinion turns around is a best-case scenario. Even then, the Jihadist forces in the border regions are pretty well entrenched. A military solution to the problem will be difficult because the morale of the troops is extremely low and they don’t want to be fighting people they see as fellow Muslims. Its also worth remembering that the right wing in Pakistan is anti-war.
If public opinion does turn around (so far it hasn’t – people are still in denial), the violence needed to swing opinion would quite possibly have caused Pakistan’s already fragile economy to collapse.
Meanwhile, although the Americans are looking to take steps in the border regions they are unwilling to lose ground troops and their bombing raids inevitably lead to civilian casualties which affect the war for hearts and minds.
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Filed in: Current affairs, Pakistan
America’s prosecution of the war over the border into Pakistan reminds me of how they increasingly conducted operations into Cambodia and Laos during the Vietnam War. And we all know what a stunning success that was.
Pakistan is still playing the double game and will only be turned around once the Army and the ISI get it through their thick heads that the Talibs and the militant brand of Islam they have bred pose a direct threat to the authority of the State.
I don’t see them going after the Talib leadership in Quetta, nor reigning in the the support structure of the JUI and it’s affiliates.
You guys should get a bit more clued up on current affairs in the region. The operation in Pakistan is on the verge of collapse. They’re offering to surrender.
Also you cannot claim that both sides of the Taliban are inter linked, this is a myth the US like to spread.
Explain this to me, even at the heart of the soviet occupation Pukhtoon and Tajok and Uzbek forces did not work together, after the liberation of Aghanistan they fougth each other for control and that still continues today.
Someone explain to me, why then Uzbek and tajik fighters are fighting along side Bautullah Mehsud, a pukhtoon war lord in Pakistan?
fellow Muslims? That’s not been the experience of people like Moazzem Begg.