Pakistan, the Taliban & Al Qaeda: A Dangerous Mix for the World
62Pakistan in Peril
Most Americans probably have not paid much attention to recent news from the Middle East area. Most could probably care less, but should. The two worst terrorist groups are the Taliban (some consider them even more extreme in their Islam beliefs) and Al-Qaeda. It seems only America and Barack Obama is fighting the war. Our European "friends" are only providing verbal support instead of military support, yet, already, the Germans and French are sending their ministers to Iraq to secure lucrative contracts since the US has now "secured" the country, without any help from either!
Not mentioned is that while both terrorist groups are on different strategies and goals, they are "tolerating" one another in the secure areas of remote Pakistan, where they thrive and the Pakistani Army has been unable to stand up to them. Why is this a problem to a nation thousands of miles away such as us?
Pakistan has over 100 nuclear weapons and rockets that can deliever them.
After one year of fighting and 12,000 Pakistani troops with tanks etc., the Pakistani army managed to only clear a small part of the Swat Valley and was unable to break the Taliban's hold on it. This is not a good omen for the Pakistani Army that has modern weapons. The Swat Valley, in northwest Pakistan's province Malakand, prior to the Taliban was a honeymoon mecca 100 miles from Islamabad, a renowned local resort area. The idyllic valley has gone really bad, its image distorted beyond recognition. Pakistan’s most popular tourist destination is now haunted by death and fear; few officials now dare to go and serve there. Up to a third of the valley's 1.5 million people have fled and the scenic area is now believed to be mostly under militant control. Some 2,000 militants are believed to operate in the valley, and yet, the Pakistani army and airforce refuse to wield their power to save their country! Amazing!
It seems that in 59 villages, the militants set up a "parallel government" with Islamic courts using sharia law. The region was largely under effective militant control as of January 2009 despite the presence of 20,000 Pakistani troops. Taliban enforcement of a complete ban on female education in the Swat district. Some 400 private schools enrolling 40,000 girls have been shut down.
The Taliban's strategy is to operate on whatever front is the most successful. Both the Afghanistan and Pakistan fronts are successful. It is far easier for them to operate on the fringe of Afghanistan and now that they have secured their onw province inside Pakistan because of this Accord, it is opening the door for much more infiltration of harsh islam law into Pakistan's secular government. Al-Qaeda's strategy seems to more more "gobal", Pakistan provides a free base to operate from, but their goals may not be the same as Taliban's. There is a chance that they have indeed joined forces, which remain separate, yet with the same goals. This too, is not a good mix for the West. Pakistan is not strong. It is Islam and Secular. It is not like Turkey, where the secular has a strong control over the system. Pakistan is corrupt and divided. It talk's the talk to fight terrorism, yet does not do the walk. This is to continue to receive the millions of aid from the US. And yet, US troops are forbidden to enter and take the terrorists out.
History shows that appeasing the enemy fails. France and Britain appeased Hitler by looking the other way as Hitler invaded and seized Poland, Austria, Czechslovakia. They tried other ways to appear Hitler, who was pleasant and smile and accepted, yet continued on with his ultimate plan. This is what is now happening in Pakistan.
Pakistan, realizing that they do not have the will to crush them have now signed an Accord allowing the Taliban to control a huge province and impose strict Islam practices not done anywhere else in the country. This is appeasement in hopes it "satisfies" the Taliban's and Al-Qaeda's hunger. There may be a pause, but it will not stop with this. It will continue until yet another and another province falls. Finally, the secular government will fail and is taken over by the extremists.
And what do you think will happen to the 100 nukes they have? Fire at India? Fire at Aghanistan? Fire at Iraq? Provide material to the Hamas in the Gaza? or Iran? and then Iran can fire at Israel?
This is the danger for everyone. It is not pie-in-the sky stuff. If a nuke goes off anywhere, the world will be changed forever again. It might start a regional nuclear exchange, yes, India has nukes also.
Even though Pakistan's President Zardari admits that the Taliban is trying to take over the country and secular Pakistan is in danger for its survival, he tries to appease! Many in Pakistan consider a "surrender" because the country is under two laws and this will eventually tear it apart. Disintegrate.
The handwriting is on the wall. The West should care and pay attention becasue our world will be impacted.
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Comments
I stand corrected. I meant the French and Germans. It is one thing to have police forces and other paramilitary units, which does not help much if you do not win at the "front". It is fair to say, the US is bearing the brunt of this and the most commited among the NATO alliance.
True - but you are a lot bigger than us, and the UK has had troops in Afghanistan and Iraq since those little episodes kicked off.
The Uk and the US are always together in many things, it is our heritage since 1776. The UK remains the largest contingent of combat soldiers besides the US. Size of the country is really not material, it is the desire. If the UK wanted to, they could and would increase the troops. The will is not there for a variety of reasons. The US just added 17,000. The UK has done its part but it ain't over.
I'm not sure we could - the Armed Forces are pretty thinly stretched at the moment.
The only option seems to be an economic squeeze - let the US threaten to cut off its billions of dollars of aid to Pakistan and they will quickly find a way to squash the extremist outfits. It really is all about the money - the aid right now is almost all spent on military upkeep. The threat of taking it away is enough to make the army stand up and do what they should be doing! So much of this money goes to line the pockets of the middlemen. If they see all that lovely lolly about to disappear, it's quite possible they will find hidden strength coming to the fore to quell the uprisings!!
I agreed. The corruption there is so deep. It is hard for me to believe that Pakistan with its army and airforce, even though weaker than the US\UK, could not crush this. The appeasement is sooo stupid. sadly, history is repeating.
In some ways it's internalised - the ISS, the Pakistani intelligence services, are riddled with fundies.
That is being a little too kind!
Perrya- Recently the govt of Pakistan conceded to the fundamentalist group in and around swat valley to have Shariat (Strict Islamic) laws in those areas. I hope moderate people of Pakistan and the government of Pakistan work together to see that such a sad day doesn't become a reality. Good thoughtful hub.
Yes, hopefully Pakistan will see this is not how to fight a war, but it is their future in their hands.
look at all the people that are murdered by the talaban terrorists, the only reason they exist is because of george bush, made the wrold upside down
if one honestly thinks that the Taliban exist because George Bush forced them to be terrorists, they need to check into some sort of therapy.
If the people who hate muslims keep hating muslims, what will the future end up being like. In the end it's George Bush's fault, and the racist Americans say it's islam's fault, they're just playing the blame game. I'm not saying all Americans but the racist ones. But that does not mean all Americans are evil, the thoughts of the Talaban terrorists. But it's best to try to gain peace, rather then being ignorant, saying you've got nothing to do with the world. When in fact you have, if we don't do anything, what will happen? Inchallah there will be no war between muslims and non muslims. But some of the many non muslims who say we're terrorists have to learn the lesson before it is too late.
pakistan is best in the world











LondonGirl says:
10 months ago
I agree with you - the Talibanisation of Pakistan should be very worrying to us all.
Can't agree with this bit, though:
"It seems only America and Barack Obama is fighting the war. Our European "friends" are only providing verbal support instead of military support,"
Last time I noticed, the UK had soldiers busy fighting (and dying) in Afghanistan.