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| India-Pakistan | |
| 'Recognition Of Taliban 'administration' On The Cards | |
| 2006-05-28 | |
For the past four years, Pakistani security forces have been battling Taliban militants in the tribal areas of North and South Waziristan under the banner of the US-led war on terror. Tens of thousands of Pakistani troops have been deployed in the lawless tribal belt of However sources say that a defeat of the security forces in North and South Waziristan is inevitable. Reports say that Pakistani forces are unable to move on the ground. Even within the regional capitals of Miran Shah in North Waziristan or Wana in South Waziristan where they are based, the Pakistani troops are at the mercy of the local Taliban commanders. | |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #5 I still have a hard time seeing this as anything other than Perv abandoning the Taliban there to the U. S. Wait till they try to get into the runp of Pakistan after the U. S. and NATO implement a policy of hot pursuit. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2006-05-28 11:57 |
| #4 There may be some truth to this.. From Najam Sethi's editorial in the Friday Times... Now we hear that Commander Khaleelur Rehman has been given his marching orders barely a year from when he was appointed Governor of the NWFP. This is ominous. It suggests a turnabout of 180 degrees in General Musharraf’s perspective on FATA, the JUI and Talibanism. The irony is that Mr Rehman took a hard line against the insurgents in FATA and against their JUI supporters in the NWFP government on the precise orders of General Musharraf. Now he has been sacked for carrying them out. Indeed, Commander Rehman’s head has been offered as a sop to the very elements who, as General Musharraf recently admitted, had “double-crossed” the army in Waziristan – taken its jirga-recommended money and used it to fuel Talibanism in the region! Unfortunately, this new “flip-flop” on Waziristan policy suggests dangerous trends. One, it seems to be staking Pakistan’s national-security interests at the altar of General Musharraf’s personal political interests. It is aimed at strengthening the JUI and encouraging it to defy the pressures of its Jamaat i Islami ally to heave General Musharraf out by a series of “million-man” marches. Hence the recent statement by Maulana Fazalur Rehman that the JUI would participate in elections and saw no reason to abandon General Musharraf. Two, it is bound to make the US nervous because it will lead to a resurgence of Talibanism in Afghanistan. Indeed, it is almost as if General Musharraf is deliberately thumbing his nose at Hamid Karzai and the international community. Equally, since the move is simultaneously designed to bring the JUI back in power in the next elections, it should be disquieting for those at home and abroad who see the country’s future in terms of a pluralistic, moderate and democratic dispensation based on free and fair elections. Combined with General Musharraf’s “soft tactical spot” for the jihadis, the ambiguities and contradictions in his policies are coming to the surface in the run up to the elections next year. |
| Posted by: john 2006-05-28 10:11 |
| #3 from www.wordreference.com consensus - agreement in the judgment or opinion reached by a group as a whole. I am not part of the 'whole' on this. |
| Posted by: Jules 2006-05-28 09:58 |
| #2 Syed Saleem Shahzad is Bureau Chief, Pakistan, Asia Times Although three older articles by Syed Saleem Shahzad are still displayed on their main page this one is no longer there. Probably even a little too far outside reality for even a Taliban propaganda machine like the Asia Times. |
| Posted by: Junkirony 2006-05-28 06:59 |
| #1 One or two days old. Agitprop was the consensus. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2006-05-28 01:18 |