“Action must be taken against Taliban and Al Qaeda forces in Pakistan before spring, when another major offensive against US and NATO forces can be expected unless the enemy bases and supply lines are disrupted,” the Washington Post wrote in an editorial published on Thursday under the caption ‘Al Qaeda’s last sanctuary’.| Hmmm. Sounds alot like the WaPo / NYT / et al Editorial pontifications prior to Afghanistan and Iraq. They won't "forget" they said this again, will they? |
The editorial also calls on General Musharraf to stop allying himself with “Pakistan’s own Muslim fundamentalists” and rehabilitate the secular democratic political parties that he has “repressed” since his 1999 coup. “He could also abolish the colonial governing system in the tribal areas, under which secular political parties are banned and mullahs empowered, and allow representative government. By tolerating the general’s empty promises and excuses, the Bush administration is putting its mission in Afghanistan and homeland security into unacceptable jeopardy,” the newspaper adds.
The Post takes the position that three months after Pakistan’s signing of the peace deal with tribal leaders in North Waziristan, its failure is clear. “That the extremists would not respect the accord, and that attacks on US forces in Afghanistan would increase rather than decline, obviously seemed likely at the time. Yet President Bush, ever indulgent of Pakistan’s autocratic ruler, Gen Pervez Musharraf, accepted his promises. The editorial claims that “senior administration officials” are now acknowledging that Musharraf’s assurances were “empty” as they have been many times before”. According to “multiple independent reports”, Waziristan has been thoroughly Talibanised, and the fundamentalists are spreading their influence through adjacent border districts. The newspaper also accuses the director of National Intelligence John D Negroponte of having “grossly understated the case last week when he told The Post that ‘tribal authorities are not living up to the deal’ struck by Musharraf and that the Taliban cross-border activity ‘causes serious problems’.
