The Taliban's paradise is taking shape in the Swat valley and beyond: Among other things, polio has resurfaced, and the girls' schools have to close in less than three weeks. They must be so proud of their "progress."
"Scenic Pakistani valley falls to Taliban militants," by Nahal Toosi for the Associated Press, December 29 (thanks to all who sent this in):
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Taliban militants are beheading and burning their way through Pakistan's picturesque Swat Valley, and residents say the insurgents now control most of the mountainous region far from the lawless tribal areas where jihadists thrive.
The deteriorating situation in the former tourist haven comes despite an army offensive that began in 2007 and an attempted peace deal. It is especially worrisome to Pakistani officials because the valley lies outside the areas where al-Qaida and Taliban militants have traditionally operated and where the military is staging a separate offensive.
"You can't imagine how bad it is," said Muzaffar ul-Mulk, a federal lawmaker whose home in Swat was attacked by bomb-toting assailants in mid-December, weeks after he left. "It's worse day by day."
The Taliban activity in northwest Pakistan also comes as the country shifts forces east to the Indian border because of tensions over last month's terrorist attacks in Mumbai, potentially giving insurgents more space to maneuver along the Afghan frontier.
Militants began preying on Swat's lush mountain ranges about two years ago, and it is now too dangerous for foreign and Pakistani journalists to visit. Interviews with residents, lawmakers and officials who have fled the region paint a dire picture.
A suicide blast killed 40 people Sunday at a polling station in Buner, an area bordering Swat that had been relatively peaceful. The attack underscored fears that even so-called "settled" regions presumptively under government control are increasingly unsafe.
The 3,500-square-mile Swat Valley lies less than 100 miles from the capital, Islamabad.
A senior government official said he feared there could be a spillover effect if the government lost control of Swat and allowed the insurgency to infect other areas. Like nearly everyone interviewed, the official requested anonymity for fear of reprisal by militants. [...]
Swat's militants are led by Maulana Fazlullah, a cleric who rose to prominence through radio broadcasts demanding the imposition of a harsh brand of Islamic law. His appeal tapped into widespread frustration with the area's inefficient judicial system. [...]
In some places, just a handful of insurgents can control a village. They rule by fear: beheading government sympathizers, blowing up bridges and demanding women wear all-encompassing burqas. [...]
A lawmaker and the senior Swat government official said business and landowners had been told to give two-thirds of their income to the militants. Some local media reported last week that the militants have pronounced effective in mid-January.
Several people interviewed said the regional government made a mistake in May when it struck a peace deal with the militants. The agreement fell apart within two months but let the insurgents regroup....
Just wait until they get their hands on those Pakistani Nuclear Weapons!
KaBoom!
Punjabistani army is really scared. Nobody in the Punjabistani army signed up for fighting a war against real fighters. Now they are good at sweet talking and swindling the west and getting billions in return. They can train jihadis to kill unarmed civilians in Mumbai. They can send masked fighters to burn NATO trucks. They can provide refuge and resources to terrorists and jihadis who fight jihad in Russia, New York city, Palestine, India and London. Its a lucrative career. They get farm houses near Islamabad. But fight a real war ? You got to be kidding. Punjabistani army has been killing villagers instead of fighting taliban to get the body count and newspaper reports. Taliban is imposing sharia in one district after another as a way of demarcating its territory. Afshaq Kayani would have lost his job. He recalled the army to the Indian border even though the Indians have no intention of going to war right now. Now Kayani has an excuse as to why he lost so much territory to taliban. Peshawar is about to fall. Punjabistani army are cowards but shhh.... keep it a secret. Please...please in the name of Islam, punjabistani is a muslim and taliban is muslim....please, can taliban just make a peace deal with them ? You see, punjabistani just wants those farm houses and yes that American Aid and those IMF loans. Fight a war, now who signed up for that? Once, the entire NFWP falls to taliban, UN should simply recognize pakhtunistan as a separate country and deal with them without having to talk to the clean shaven jihadi punjabistanis.
Given the state of Islamic Science, they would be making progress if they get them of of the silos, and detonate them over their own heads. Allahu Akhb--fff f f ftt !!
"out of the silos"
See link for story and news footage of SUV bomb attack in Khost Afghanistan that killed 14 8-10 yr old kids walking to/from school and wounded many others.
The SUV bomb is seen approaching a checkpoint and then all that can be seen is a flash of light caused by a large explosion. The footage was taken by a security camera near the checkpoint.
link footage
http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=4226712&cl=11295339&src=news
link story
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081228/ap_on_re_as/as_afghanistan
I will leave it to others to comment on the whether it is a good idea to terrorize your fellow countrymen and killing your own children. Can the oft cited "hearts and minds" be won by democracy, aid and kindness; or is servile obedience more easily won by random acts of violence, murder, and terror.
"Beheading and burning their way through [insert name here]" - about as good a summary as one might find, for 1300 years of Jihad against non-Muslims and also against other Muslims deemed insufficiently-Islamic.
Also from the article: "Several people interviewed said the regional government made a mistake in May when it struck a peace deal with the militants. The agreement fell apart within two months but let the insurgents regroup....".
Got that, everyone.
The (presumably-deemed-insufficiently-Islamic-because-of-dealings-with-the-infidel) government made a peace deal with the militants (i.e. the *really* fanatical jihadists).
"The agreement fell apart within two months, but let the insurgents regroup".
Doesn't the Pakistani government know about the Treaty of Hudaybiyya, and the principle of pure expediency - Treaties Need Not Be Kept - that it established?
Maybe they thought that their fellow Muslims would keep an agreement with *them*, since they are, after all, Muslims.
Seems not. Obviously they aren't considered Muslim enough, because they've just been treated by the jihadists in exactly the same manner as every Infidel entity has been treated, that has ever tried to make a 'peace deal' with Muslims...see Israel and the 'Palestinians', see India and - Pakistan itself, over Kashmir; see Thailand, see the Philippines, see, see, see, 'peace processes' everywhere and always with the same dismal results.
Sometimes, you need poison to kill poison. Taliban getting stronger means Pakistan will be divided. And why is that bad?
Just more proof that muslims, no matter what type of mulsim or islam they profess cannot get along with each other on any level and will
stoop to the lowest of levels: killing each other children. The pakistan army is impotent against the taliban and is rife with spies and informants.
The so called agreement was made with plans to not honor it as mulims do not know the meaning of honor or keeping your word or signatures even if these murdering scums could write. You either agree and convert to the radical message, or get beheaded or worse, tortured and then beheaded. This has been islamic rule for over 1000 years. It will not change just because all sides are muslims. Islamofacism is islamofacism and that equates to ruthless and bloodletting rule. Just take a look around the world and almost all conflicts or wars INCLUDE islam. This will never change for there can never be peace of any type with islam. Never!
I say, Give them juice.......
http://news.webshots.com/photo/2298296970103726530OBKYUv
To Naresh (some 2 comments above), I understand your sentiments and still, a weakened central govenrnment in nuclear Pakistan could mean Jihadists putting their hands on nuclear weaponry. and if that happens, we're doomed.
The only question is, how to "convince" the Pakistani government to fight Jihadists seriously. And how to "convince" all factions of ISI to stop collaborating with them.
OT
Egypt mocks Hezballah and Iranian military.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUKTRE4BT1OP20081230
Asaf, thanks for that nice piece of informed analysis. But is the Pakistani army really capable of taking on the Taliban without triggering a civil war they might lose? I don't know, just asking :)
you see the results of inbreeding from the pak on display and all muslim states are failed. the nuke facilities are probably in a shambles and most likely dont work and if moved will detonate or become disabled. nothing muslims correctly do if not simple ie flying into buildings or killing unarmed civilians, these are choice of cowardice, no bravery.
And this is of course much more comfortable for the Paks than having American drones flying overhead or American soldiers coming in to stomp the Taliban.
It would be interesting to know just what condition the Pak nukes are actually in.
I doubt that the builders of the nukes can't maintain them. But can the Taliban?
Do the Taliban have nuke technicians on hand to maintain their newly acquired weapons, or would they use the technicians already there to do it?
Seeing how the Taliban works, they would probably kill those nuke technicians before they realize how much they need them...
Nukes for the Taliban is like giving a five year old a Sherman tank to drive around...
Weather the Nukes get into Islamic Jihadis is just a matter of time. Well lets put it this way the use of nukes is just a matter of time it is an eventuality. The fact is that Islamic Jihadis are getting more and more daring and using all means necessary to inflict grave damage to non Muslims.
It is just a matter of time that another attack will happen.
Pakistan is a messed up place it has enough money to mobilize its troops to the Indian border but does nothing to fight the Islamic Jihadis and Taliban within its borders. Moreover it has done nothing to destroy the training camps that are in the NWFP.
It has not allowed any Nato or US air force or drones into its airspace inorder to track down these camps. Pakistan is just another Islamic country that has made more money out of this war on terror than before.
In their Taliban minds they are not doing wrong things. They are doing good things. We just think they are doing wrong things because we were brought up differently. This is hard for us to understand but understand it we must.
In their minds they are simply following in the footsteps of their prophet Mohammad and doing as he would do to please their god, Mohammad's god, Allah. Mohammad spred his religion by killing any non-believers.
We can call these people killers, savages, or worse but they will not listen to us any more than we would listen to someone criticize us for believing and following the teachings put forth by the representatives of OUR God.
We live in an "alternate theological universe" compared to these people. What may be "good" to us is "bad" to them. What works for THEM in life will not work for US in life.
Our governments approach is to try to "convert" them to the secular humanism religion. They, however, regard secular humanism as pure evil (as do a lot of our own people). This approach will not work, ever. The reason it will not work is because among believing people, "evil" is the worst of all enemies. That is why we see large crowds of them shaking their fists at us through the cameras.
What to do about this situation? We have only two choices:
1. Disallow them from acquiring advanced technology or Western learning of any kind and otherwise stay away from them. (We would have to destroy all their existing advanced technology.)
2. Kill all of their true believers and/or defuse their religion by force. Defusing their religion means to separate the man from their god like we did to the Japanese after WWII. This could be done by disallowing Sharia and disallowing any Imam from having any type of secular power. This would require some changes in the Koran.
I know that we will not do any of these things until it is probably too late. We are entangled with them to a great extent. So we may as well prepare ourselves for a lifetime of battle with them. The more WMD's they have, the worse it will be for us and if they get certain WMD's, we are dead. Most importantly, we may very well lose this battle in the end because our country has lost its great thirst for survival and excellence. We had excellence during WWII but not today. Today, we lean toward national suicide.
How many of those who are now being terrorized by the Taliban refused to stand against them because they are fellow Muslims? They reap their just desserts.
Of course killing all those children was "an accident". They were after the tribal elders but were not allowed through the checkpoint.
The Swat Valley was "a former tourist haven", as are so many areas where Muslims rule. They make these areas off limits to others by actively discouraging non-Muslim tourism and then they whine about poverty.
"In some places, just a handful of insurgents can control a village. They rule by fear: beheading government sympathizers, blowing up bridges and demanding women wear all-encompassing burqas."
There are more villagers than Taliban. If they won't stand up and fight then they have no right to expect anyone else to fight on their behalf. If the argument is: but we'll be killed if we resist, then what right do they have to expect anyone else to fight and die FOR them?
What does the OIC do? Every Islamic nation should be dropped on their doorstep. Fifty-seven nations should be able to come to an agreement on how to handle their fellow Muslims. It's time we washed our hands of the Muslim world. There is no shame in admitting failure. We are not gods.
Islam is a malignant cancer of the world body politic. It can never be "cured". Containment is the only option available to the modern world as it was the only option prior to the 20th century. The genie (jinn) of jihad was allowed to escape from the bottle to which it had been confined by our ancestors with cannons for nearly a thousand years. After the demise of the Ottomans, the last Islamic empire, in the wake of the Great War of 1914-1918, the befuddled multiculturalist academics perhaps believed that the scourge of jihad had been defeated once and for all and could never again rise up to afflict humanity again. They also thought that the Great War was the war to end all wars.
The world can coexist with Islam but only under the conditions that our ancestors imposed upon the world order in their time. The Islamic territories must be defined, the adherents of the creed must be given the choice of living there under their own self-determined ideological matrix, or allowed to live among us as fully integrated members of our secular societies. By fully integrated I mean that their loyalty to the secular society must be primary and constantly tested. There is no more place in a modern society for the tribal warrior code of Islam than there is for the practice of cannibalism.
It needs to be treated like we treat other primitive native practices and its adherents must be confined to their natural habitat.
Islam is a malignant cancer of the world body politic. It can never be "cured". Containment is the only option available to the modern world as it was the only option prior to the 20th century. The genie (jinn) of jihad was allowed to escape from the bottle to which it had been confined by our ancestors with cannons for nearly a thousand years. After the demise of the Ottomans, the last Islamic empire, in the wake of the Great War of 1914-1918, the befuddled multiculturalist academics perhaps believed that the scourge of jihad had been defeated once and for all and could never rise up to afflict humanity again. They also thought that the Great War was the war to end all wars.
The world can coexist with Islam but only under the conditions that our ancestors imposed upon the world order in their time. The Islamic territories must be defined, the adherents of the creed must be given the choice of living there under their own self-determined ideological matrix, or allowed to live among us as fully integrated members of our secular societies. By fully integrated I mean that their loyalty to the secular society must be primary and constantly tested. There is no more place in a modern society for the tribal warrior code of Islam than there is for the practice of cannibalism.
It needs to be treated like we treat other primitive native practices and its adherents must be confined to their natural habitat.
Sorry about the double post. Blame my impatience with the new and improved TypePad facility.
Spot on, good diagnosis but I'm more optimistic than is your prognosis. Horrible as it might be, a few nuked cities in the West would not spell our doom. Instead, if it comes to this, it might finally open enough eyes for us to undertake the sort of comprehensive cleansing required to either rid the world once and for all of this vile ideology, or defang it financially and socially and otherwise put it back into its cage for another 500 years. It would be messy, to be sure, and likely accompanied by much violence. And it would not restore the pre 9-11 world. The end result would be a massive restructuring of the world in the same way that WWI brought about the end of the Belle Époch, or WWII led to the dismantling of the pre-war colonialist system. What's not clear is whether the end result, after the dust has settled, will be to our liking.
Oops. "Belle Époch" in the previous post should read "Belle Époque."
Taliban "beheading and burning their way" through Pakistan's Swat valley
.....................
Just a couple of years ago, the Swat valley was a tourist attraction. People came for the trout fishing, to view local Buddhist ruins, and, especially, to ski. Here is a picture of the Malam Jabba ski resort:
http://www.pbase.com/waqas/image/64629400/medium.jpg
Lovely, no? Jihadists broke in to the shuttered hotel this summer and set it on fire. Here's an article from CNN:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/06/26/paksitan.ski/index.html
I'm sure the only people fishing these days are impoverished local villagers. And, given the Taliban's actions at Bamiyan, I wouldn't hold out much hope for the continued existence of those Buddhist ruins, either.
It shows how shaky any "modernity" is in Muslim countries--that an area can go from being a big tourist draw to a region rife with disease, virtually devoid of education for girls, the scene of bombings and beheadings, in the space of just two years is sobering.
DDA, good catch on the results of the "peace deal". The Pakistani government here seemed as clueless as any Western power. Did they really believe that the Taliban would honor any agreement?
more:
Swat's militants are led by Maulana Fazlullah, a cleric who rose to prominence through radio broadcasts demanding the imposition of a harsh brand of Islamic law. His appeal tapped into widespread frustration with the area's inefficient judicial system.
........................
This, of course, is Shari'ah. The idea that the brutality of Sharia'ah is something the locals find attractive only because of frustration "with the area's inefficient judicial system" is ludicrous. Many Muslims believe that Shari'ah is the only valid legal system--mandated by Allah--and that standard Pakistani law, while fairly brutal, is not brutal enough for "true Muslims".
Eastview, My prognosis on this Islamic war varies from time to time and I guess I was just wee bit pessimistic today. Your "more optimistic" prognosis is not really very optimistic, when you think about it. But a few nuked cities may very well motivate people to set aside their civility and get messy with this barbaric enemy.
...There is no more place in a modern society for the tribal warrior code of Islam than there is for the practice of cannibalism.
It needs to be treated like we treat other primitive native practices and its adherents must be confined to their natural habitat.
Posted by: SaracensAtTheGates at December 30, 2008 11:19 AM
That is an excellent way to say what needs to be said about Islam. I agree completely.
"In some places, just a handful of insurgents can control a village. They rule by fear: beheading government sympathizers, blowing up bridges and demanding women wear all-encompassing burqas. [...]"
I cannot understand the mentality of people that are in such fear for their lives. A favorite saying is "I would rather die on my feet than live on my knees".
Do these people ever fight back? Sheer numbers could overwhelm the handful of insurgents! Add a few kitchen knives, shovels, hammers, etc into the skirmish and the lesson might be taught and remembered. Smear a little pig blood on the bodies of the insurgents, decapitate them and hang the heads on poles in the village square.
Until the downtrodden develop the guts to fight fire with fire, they will never be free from intimidation. England is rapidly following the way of Europe. Reminiscent of the Jews in WWII walking like sheep into the ovens. Is freedom of such little value? I fear the United States will follow the trend if our government continues to listen to the doves, the appeasers (one who feeds the alligators hoping to be eaten last)