Taliban regrouping in Pakistan

[voivod]

Report: Taliban regrouping in Pakistan

A peace deal between Pakistan's government and Islamic militants in the northwestern tribal region of North Waziristan has created a virtual Taliban mini-state where mullahs dispense justice and fighters are launching cross-border attacks into neighboring Afghanistan, a think tank reported Monday.

The U.S. military confirmed that attacks have risen sharply since the deal was reached earlier this year despite concerns it would give a freer hand to Taliban and al-Qaida-linked militants who fled to Pakistan after the fall of the hard-line regime in Afghanistan in 2001.

"Over the past five years, the (President Gen. Pervez) Musharraf government has tried first brute force, then appeasement. Both have failed," said Samina Ahmed of the International Crisis Group that published the report. "Islamabad's tactics have only emboldened the pro-Taliban militants."

That grim assessment came against the backdrop of an alarming surge in violence in southern and eastern Afghanistan this year that has killed close to 4,000 people, threatening the Western-backed project to rebuild the country and establish democracy.

Government policy has allowed militants "to establish a virtual mini-Taliban-style state," the Crisis Group said, citing reports of pro-Taliban militants attacking music, video and CD stores, closing barber shops, imposing taxes and establishing courts to impose summary justice.

The Pakistani government rejected the Brussels-based group's report as "baseless allegations" and described the violence across the border as Afghanistan's internal problem.

"There are no camps or centers where terrorists are being trained in the tribal areas," said Arbab Mohammed Arif Khan, secretary for law and order in Pakistan's semiautonomous tribal regions.

Pakistan, a key U.S. anti-terror ally, has deployed about 80,000 forces at the Afghan border and launched numerous military operations against al-Qaida-linked militants in the past five years, but with mixed results. In North Waziristan, heavy-handed offensives this year left hundreds dead and stoked local anger and support for pro-Taliban religious leaders.

The peace deal, inked in September after a June cease-fire, capped the fighting in Pakistan. But the Crisis Group reported "increasingly severe cross-border attacks on Afghan and international military personnel, with the support and active involvement of Pakistani militants." It said the ambivalent approach of the Musharraf government was "destabilizing Afghanistan."

A senior tribal elder confirmed the Taliban had gained sway in North Waziristan. Tribesmen were bypassing the government and traditional tribal leaders and approaching their pro-Taliban leaders in the towns of Miran Shah and Mir Ali to settle land and money disputes. Religious students were even helping to direct traffic, he told The Associated Press.

The elder requested anonymity because he had been threatened by militants for meeting government leaders.

Access to the heavily Pashtun tribal regions, a possible hiding place for Osama bin Laden, is restricted. Foreign journalists are not permitted there unless under government or army escort, and reports of militant activities are often difficult to verify.

In Afghanistan, U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Paul Fitzpatrick said U.S. and Afghan security posts along the eastern border with Pakistan had seen a spike in attacks from 17 in May to 50 in August and 57 in October. Most of the attacks were in Paktika province, which lies opposite North and South Waziristan.

Attacks leveled off to about one a day in November, possibly because of winter weather settling in, Fitzpatrick said.

He said the data were not conclusive but that the increase could have been influenced by the North Waziristan peace deal or by U.S. military operations forcing more militants to operate close to the Pakistan border.

[jimmy812]

Oh good, I had been dying to hear what they'd been up to...

[graeme]

Afghanistan is as big a fuck up as Iraq, though for different reasons and with a different outcome.

To have invaded this country, with the official stated aim of removing terrorist capabilities ie removing the Taliban, it strikes me as idiocy of the highest order to then simply secure a few key towns and let go the very people we were supposed to be after.

British troops in the Helmand (sp) province are currently facing their heaviest fighting since the Korean war in ridiculous conditions (lack of troops, equipment, support) with no real game plan. Several of our top brass have openly criticised the government for having no direction and making the soldiers jobs next to impossible, something that is almost unheard of in recent military history.

I know a couple of guys out there and both have said that the whole thing is a pointless exercise when the original aim has been completely disregarded and they are left fighting a guerilla war that cannot be won, by either side.
This became the forgotten war so quickly, basically as soon as Karzai had been installed and certain pipeline agreements had been reached.

Coincidence?

And why is Pakistan a "key ally" in the "war on (of) terror". We would be told that it's geography makes it vital, and that is half true when you look at the wider implications. However, our little march around to world to "spread democracy" says it's OK to ally ourselves with a dictator who, at best, is being required to do a tightrope walk and at worst, is reaping the benefits of Western aid whilst at the same time is appeasing the very people we are supposed to be fighting.

Fuck it.

[jimmy812]

Fuck it.

That's the spirit!

[chefcraig]

I simply offer this, what is probably the most astute assessment of U.S. foriegn policy ever written:

Political Science, by Randy Newman

No one likes us-I don't know why
We may not be perfect, but heaven knows we try
But all around, even our old friends put us down
Let's drop the big one and see what happens

We give them money-but are they grateful?
No, they're spiteful and they're hateful
They don't respect us-so let's surprise them
We'll drop the big one and pulverize them

Asia's crowded and Europe's too old
Africa is far too hot
And Canada's too cold
And South America stole our name
Let's drop the big one
There'll be no one left to blame us

We'll save Australia
Don't wanna hurt no kangaroo
We'll build an All American amusement park there
They got surfin', too

Boom goes London and boom Paris
More room for you and more room for me
And every city the whole world round
Will just be another American town
Oh, how peaceful it will be
We'll set everybody free
You'll wear a Japanese kimono
And there'll be Italian shoes for me

They all hate us anyhow
So let's drop the big one now
Let's drop the big one now


...craig