by William S. Lind
About two weeks ago, the world’s attention suddenly turned to a dramatic battle in Pakistan. The Pakistani Army, we were told, had trapped a large force of al Qaeda, including a “high-value target,” possibly Ayman Zawahiri. The Pakistanis brought in artillery and air power. The fate of the al Qaeda fighters was sealed.
Then the whole thing evaporated into thin air. First, Zawahiri wasn’t there. Then no other “high-value target” was there either. The Pakistani Army invited local tribal elders to mediate, declaring a cease-fire while they did so – not the sort of thing you do when you are winning. Pakistani Army units elsewhere in the tribal territories came under attack. Finally the whole business just dropped out of sight, ending not with a bang but a whimper.
You must love Government Bashing!! Man just let it go!!!
But no your too petty just like those idiots that kill inncoent people in the name of god, death is never justified but sometimes national securtiy comes first and i hope and pray for the souls of everyone who died on that day!
I think one reason for the halt in the fighting is that many people in the Armed forces realised they’d badly handled the operation. Case in point this article where the writer points out how the existing system in the Tribal areas has benefitted the government:
The simple explanation is that the anachronistic system benefited a few at the expense of the majority. I have served in the tribal areas, as have scores of other officers. Everyone knows that the majority of tribesmen were willing — even pleading — to be absorbed in the mainstream. I know that a number of Inspector Generals of the Frontier Corps (IGFCs), recommended to the government that they were prepared to undertake operations to bring these areas under the law, but all such proposals went unheard. The few who benefited would not let this happen.
The Americans have failed to win the battle for the hearts and minds of the people due to their innate arrogance, not as individuals but collectively as a nation. Perhaps they can afford to pay the price for it, since they will react even more punitively; but we cannot. This is, as I said before, our land and our people, the sole purpose of the state is to protect them and ensure their inalienable right to freedom and protection. Let us not conduct the operation with arrogance.
An article in The Friday times (which being a secular paper was strongly supportive of the oepration) also commented how several retired generals had said the operation offended people with it’s timing (Colin Powell and Abizad’s visit) and a lot of casulaties would have been avoided if they had done what they are doing now..
Unfortunately that’s the price one pays for launching military operations on ones own territory on another countries behest.
*Some of these elements were cultivated both by the government and the clergy to fight the previous Afghan war. For 20-24 years the locals were requested, pressured, cajoled, rewarded, sermonized to help, aid and shelter these people. A whole generation has grown up since then. It’s not a uni-dimensional problem for me to give you a one-liner as a solution. *