Re: Whore of Swat
Faisal makes a good point: blame game is only so productive. The solution is simple, if anyone has the cahoonas to carry it out: disband the jihadi outfits, impose serious weapon control; impose serious border controls; cut out the secret support for jihaadi groups from ISI and other conspiracy-freaks in the government and hand them a home collection of bourne supremacy if they're so interested in playing conspiracy; impose severe punishments for anyone joining a terrorist organization (death, fines, whatever), and impose a full death penalty for the current Taliban groups on grounds of treason; disband the current elder system in NWFP and FATA areas and have writ of law instated in these areas; and do serious reform of the education system, involving especially shutting down of any rogue institutions and imprisoning the "maulvis" preaching hate.
That'll send a message to everyone - Islam is not something to be tampered with and used as a toy to kill and terrorize innocent people to gain your petty political/economic goals.
Data: Of course SWAT was fine prior to Taliban intrustions, but Musharraf never created the Taliban to begin with - those guys have been around way before Musharraf was ever in power. Their origins and their ancestor groups go back to the Soviet Cold War era, and Zia was instrumental in their production, and the so-called democratic groups (benazir bhutto, nawaz sharif) were instrumental in sustaining these groups to carry on their "diplomacy" in Kashmir.
You mess around enough with God's pure message to mankind, and it ends up biting you in the behind it the end. I would think most muslims would get this concept, but apparently, most don't.
Oh, and someone mentioned here how the people being brainwashed by these groups shouldn't be blamed; rather they are victims? Seriously? You know what? Why don't I stop being a good responsible citizien and start misbehaving and then calling myself a victim as an excuse for my sorry arse behavior? Everyone else is doing it, apparently, these days, and getting away with it.