not a new argument.
i have a friend from swat who is from an educated family who served the swat state. he is in no way a left-wing pashtun nationalist but he curses the army and says they are worse than the israelis. for him it was either swat as a separate country or pakistan, nothing in between.
normally you could expect a pshtun nationalist to army bash but now maybe educated swati people have had eough of everything? the army has not dealt with some of the issues very well and quite a few people claim army check posts and taliban checkposts are very close. little is done by the government and the intelligence to jam the fm signal used by fazullah.
i get the feeling more and more people within the region are thinking they are the cash cows for american aid to pakistan.
its easy for us to talk about imposing war but the locals trust neither side and they see things we dont. then again t could just be army-bashing, some sectors of the pakistani media/journalism love to do that. theres nothing anyone can do thats right. people complain all the time.
i hope the army is sincere this time in getting rid of the taliban. NO MORE GAMES!