Re: Is violence the answer?
**Glad you recognize my MO since I wear it on my shoulder proudly. Glad you are open minded, can’t say the same for many in the mullah camp.
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Absolutely. So you still have not answered my question about a solution to this mess? If this is a true discussion then I expect a response just like you would expect one from me.
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Never been inside FATA, been near to the border of the tribal areas many years ago. I don’t claim to be an expert on the flora and fauna of the tribal areas. But even then one can have a good picture of what is happening in the area. The traditional tribal maliks are losing power to the hot headed Taliban and their terrorist ways. If the tribal maliks were to be replaced by a proper political setup, abolishment of FCR, integration into Pakistan, I would have been all for it, but in this case we something far far worse.
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Right, all of these assertions are not really supported by reality. The core issue is indeed the presence of the Taliban.The reasons behind it are drastically different.
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Hundreds of non extremist (pro-government/Pakistan if you will) tribal leaders were beheaded when this so-called peace accord was in effect. Attacks on security forces never completely stopped during this time. The Taliban not only gained more control in the tribal areas, but also extended their draconian laws and vandalism in the name of Islam over to the settled areas in the vicinity. This has been an utter failure for the people of the area. Illegal FM channels have propped up every where singing praises of suicide bombings and ordering people to stop sending girls to school (see Mullah Fazlullah in Swat as one recent example). We all can guess which path this is headed when we as civilized Pakistanis cede ground to these mullahs. There demands will not stop at Swat or Tank.
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I think you fail to understand the Taliban, their objectives and composition. There are more than enough reports and investigative pieces floating around the net. If you would like, drop me a PM and I cn give few book titles.
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You’re right and that’s why we need to sort this out ourselves instead of giving ample opportunity for America to bomb the entire place. America has learned some lessons from Afghanistan and Iraq, that it cannot occupy foreign lands and is better off using massive air superiority to get to its targets. If we allow the area to be used for attacks into Afghanistan, America will bomb it. They already have before.
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Here we are in complete agreement. A solution, a non-violent one, is necessary. What do you propose?
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Ok, I won’t even mention what Assad did in Syria….oops I just did. But anyways, you are only delaying much greater bloodshed through these fake peace deals.**
Here I will dismantle your assertions. If you referring to the destruction of Hama, where thousands of Sunnis of the Muslim Brotherhood were killed, you must not actually believe that it dismantled the Sunni extremist resistance?
Granted Syria has manipulated the extremists to serve its interests but more on that later.
Article #1
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] When the fighters were defeated or deported back to Syria, a combination of frustration, anger and despair overtook them. Unable to strike at the Americans in Iraq or the Israelis in Palestine, they unleashed their anger on their fellow Syrians. In addition to the Mezzeh attack of 2004, a group of terrorists were apprehended, after a shooting that caused panic among picnickers, in July 2005 on Mount Qassioun overlooking the Syrian capital. Earlier in the summer of 2005, Syria announced that it had arrested one man and killed another who had been planning an attack in Damascus on behalf of Jund al-Sham, a terrorist organization that has recently emerged in the country.
http://jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2369768
Articel 1 was a bit old so,
Article #2
A Look at the Terror Group Jund Al-ShamBy The Associated Press
The Associated Press
Tuesday, September 12, 2006; 1:56 PM
– The group Jund al-Sham, Arabic for Soldiers of Syria, has claimed responsibility or been blamed for a number of bombings and gunbattles, mainly in Lebanon and Syria. Syrian officials have portrayed it as the most active militant group in the country. But its origins and makeup remain murky.
It appears to be targeting the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad because of its secular, nationalist ideology and a crackdown led by Assad’s father, Hafez Assad, that killed thousands of Muslim fundamentalists in the 1980s. The militants also reject rule by the Assad family because it belongs to the Shiite Alawite branch of Islam.
Damascus _ which is accused by the United States of supporting terrorism for its backing of the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah and Palestinian militants _ argues that Jund al-Sham demonstrates that it, too, is targeted by terrorism. Bashar Assad claimed in June that al-Qaida-linked militants were taking refuge in Lebanon.
The Sunni Muslim Jund al-Sham is believed to have first emerged in Afghanistan in 1999, established by Syrians, Palestinians and Jordanians with links to the Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who later became leader of al-Qaida in Iraq and was killed this year in a U.S. airstrike.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/12/AR2006091200844.html
Threats faced by Bashar:
Bashar Assad, analysts said, faces two imminent threats. First, the Syrian Army, where the Sunni Muslim forces are controlled by a handful of Alawite officers, may erupt in a bid to throw off Alawite hegemony. .
Ali Bayanoni, a fundamentalist Sunni leader in exile in Jordan, recently predicted this outcome. .
Also, said the Arab ambassador, “the Alawites themselves may worry that Bashar is not tough enough to safeguard their interests.”
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http://www.iht.com/articles/2000/06/13/alawite.2.t.php#
Coming back to the issue of the authoritarian Syrian regimes support of extremist groups, my points are further strengthened. The Syrians have supported Hizballah, the extremists in Iraq, and Hamas in a bid to minimize the domestic threat to the regime. By supporting these religious organizations outside of the country, Bashar and co. have very deftly kept the conflict outside it’s borders. That is something that Pakistan needs to learn. Of course I am not calling for state sponsored terrorism, however shifting the extremist agenda away from the domestic arena should be the goal.