Taliban's word no good in Pakistan deal

NY Times:

Islamic militants are using a recent peace deal with the government to consolidate their hold in northern Pakistan, vastly expanding their training of suicide bombers and other recruits and fortifying alliances with Al Qaeda and foreign fighters, diplomats and intelligence officials from several nations say. The result, they say, is virtually a Taliban mini-state.

The militants, the officials say, are openly flouting the terms of the September accord in North Waziristan, under which they agreed to end cross-border help for the Taliban insurgency that revived in Afghanistan with new force this year.

The area is becoming a magnet for an influx of foreign fighters, who not only challenge government authority in the area, but are even wresting control from local tribes and spreading their influence to neighboring areas, according to several American and NATO officials and Pakistani and Afghan intelligence officials.

This year more than 100 local leaders, government sympathizers or accused “American spies” have been killed, several of them in beheadings, as the militants have used a reign of terror to impose what President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan calls a creeping “Talibanization.” Last year, at least 100 others were also killed.

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After failing to gain control of the areas in military campaigns, the government cut peace deals in South Waziristan in 2004 and 2005, and then in North Waziristan on Sept. 5. Since the September accord, NATO officials say cross-border attacks by Pakistani and Afghan Taliban and their foreign allies have increased.

In recent weeks, Pakistani intelligence officials said the number of foreign fighters in the tribal areas was far higher than the official estimate of 500, perhaps as high as 2,000 today.

These fighters include Afghans and seasoned Taliban leaders, Uzbek and other Central Asian militants, and what intelligence officials estimate to be 80 to 90 Arab terrorist operatives and fugitives, possibly including the Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and his second in command, Ayman al-Zawahri.

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There is much more. It appears that the NY Times is finally catching up with Bill Roggio who has been all over this story for months. If Pakistan wil not do something about these sanctuaries then the US and NATO wil have to. Pakistan should tell the tribal leaders they are in breach of the agreement and it will no longer protect them from attacks and it will join in seeing their destruction. It is the choice Pakistan made in 2001 and it is time for them to live up to that choice. This area is the primary source of terrorism in the world today and its perpetrators must be destroyed.

Update: The Belmont Club also discusses the article.

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What's not widely realized is that the Fall of Waziristan was occasioned by attempts to "engage" the Taliban. Safe behind an international border from military pursuit, the Pakistani plan was to buy them off. By acceding to their "legitimate" demands it was thought that the militants would leave Afghanistan alone and quit carving up Pakistan. Under the deal, the militants would cease cross-border operations, refrain from killing Pakistani officials and stop spreading their influence in exchange for dismantling checkpoints, releasing detainees, returning captured weapons and declaring an amnesty. They would get guns in return for a promise not to use them. Peace would descend over the region and Nobel Prizes would be handed out like Crackerjack prizes. But as some might have guessed, the militants lied.

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Dealing with someone whose word is no good is not a route to peace. At best it is a way to "put forward the evil day." Pakistan claims it tried this approach because confrontation had not worked. However, The US easily routed the Taliban in Afghanistan, and NATO and the US continue to destroy Taliban units when they come into Afghanistan. This suggest Pakistan did not put up a real effort or its troops are not up to the task of defeating a third rate bunch of terrorist. The fact is that if Pakistan got out of the way, the US and NATO could clean out this infestation and leave Pakistan a better place.