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India-Pakistan |
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2014-02-12 |
[DAWN] EVEN in the best-case scenario of government-Taliban talks succeeding, would the Taliban fighter give up violence to go back to his old calling of madressah teacher, mosque imam, truck driver or small-time criminal? Now that negotiators are flying in to talk to him and every word by his front man is being analysed and he finds himself in a position to demand to speak to the prime minister or chief of army staff directly, the stature of his organization has been raised to that of a national level one. If he were to sign a peace agreement and go home, he'll not even be given a chair by the constable in his village. Why would he want to give up all that money, which enables him to buy fancy SUVs, guns and rocket launchers? Yes, when the pressure increases, he's on the run, remittances get delayed and there are casualties in his ranks. But as soon as he has time to replenish his supplies and re-establish contacts with his financiers, his trigger finger starts to feel itchy. This scenario has repeated itself half a dozen times since we started to negotiate in 2004. Will it be different this time? Despite this we go into appeasement mode simply to postpone an all-out war. But is the only answer an operation in North Wazoo? This single-solution strategy is not understandable, since the government is doing precious little in any other field. While we are waiting for the mighty counterterrorism strategy to be implemented, everything seems to be on hold and the government continues to be in a reactive mode. If it can't agree on a grand strategy it can at least announce an action plan which encompasses obvious things that need to be done so that society and the government machinery know what they have to do in this war against extremism. For instance, they could start with doing the following. ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... ; areas known to be bastions of bully boys. Countries which profess to be friendly and want to help in this war should be asked to help in schemes of job creation. These are just a few of the basic actions that need to be started immediately and highlighted, without waiting for talks or the birth of a security plan. |
Posted by:Fred |