Talibanistan and the resurgence of terror
March 27th, 2007 by ashish
Okay, Talibanistan is not a new state. It is actually the wilder parts of Pakistan, the areas bordering Afghanistan where the authority of the Pakistani State simply does not run. And this is a very simplistic assumption. Read the whole article at Time.
What does this actually mean? It means that Pakistan is in an unenviable position. It is the nation that is at the epicenter of global terror as depicted by Al-Qaeda, and is facing massive internal pressures (with a hard government run by the army that really does not even allow internal opposition and debate).
Essentially, the border areas are the places where terrorists can get free sanctuary, where tribals (sometimes freely, sometimes not) support the terrorists in an assumption that the version of Islam preached by the Taliban is pure (it is not, but that is another matter). It is a region that is slowly getting converted into a mini version of Afghanistan before 2001, a place where terrorist can get shelter, training, and where they can also implement their own version of Islam (a truly hard-core version that is typically rejected elsewhere as a distortion of Islamic theology).
But what can be done ? Status quo would not be acceptable. Currently, the Taliban regroups in these border areas, crosses the border into Afghanistan, strikes against the Afghan government and the NATO troops, and then comes back to these border regions. The Pakistani military does not really want to cleanse these regions, and hence the compromise whereby the Pakistani Government will not interfere in these regions (shades of Neville Chamberlain and Hitler).
Unless this is reversed, Afghanistan will slowly slide back into chaos, and this time, because of the pressure and political push against an Iraqi type misadventure, there will be no going back into Afghanistan to repair things. Pakistan and its military need to be reminded that this is a battle for the heart and soul of their own nation, and unless they are willing to take the bull by the thorns, they should give up the idea of their country as a vibrant prosperous democracy.
