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Well. A fine lot of good Pakistan's efforts since 2006 to make peace with the Taliban have done. The Taliban certainly got what it wanted, but did anyone in Pakistan or elsewhere learn anything about negotiating with jihadists, or about Islamic teachings on calling for a truce?
"Peace talks broken-off, Taliban enters Peshawar," from CNN-IBN, June 28:
New Delhi: The Taliban has broken-off peace negotiations with the government and it's followers have entered Peshawar, threatening and intimidating. They say only the Sharia law can now prevail.
Meanwhile, Pakistan's paramilitary Frontier Corps is on the offensive in the Khyber Agency adjoining Peshawar.
Seven hundred troops have been deployed in an operation to flush out the Taliban fighters of Beitullah Mehsud entrenched in the mountains not far from Peshawar. The army is on standby as concerns grow over whether Peshawar will fall to the Taliban.
“Some of the Taliban and the religious militants have made incursions into Peshawar. They have been visiting various local shops and hotels, threatening the people and it is the same kind of movement that has been taking place in Afghanistan and in the tribal areas earlier, “ says Dawn News correspondent, Arshad Sharif.
Mehsud says he has no plans to take Peshawar but adds the rider that he can capture it anytime he wants. He's broken-off peace negotiation with the government after the offensive got underway.
In recent days, his followers have entered Peshawar and intimidated judges. They have warned people that only Sharia law can prevail and they've also shut down women's polling stations.
People say that religious elements have kidnapped some people from Nauthia area of Peshawar. They also point out that the people living around the area are very insecure.
However, not all people feel that way.
Some say that the people of this city are involved in these incidents. They also add that nobody is coming from outside. “In the end I will say long live Taliban. We want the Taliban to rule.”
For the moment the Frontier Corps is enforcing curfew on the outskirts of Peshawar, while also carrying out what is a limited action against Beitullah Mehsud. However, it may not be long before a full-scale conflict breaks out.
"For the moment," perhaps, in more ways than one.
Posted by Marisol at June 30, 2008 12:16 AM
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$30 billion in aid, direct and indirect, military and economic (including debt forgiveness) from the United States alone, to Pakistan, since 9/11/2001.
What have we gotten for that money?
What did we get, in the decades before, for all that military aid, all those advanced planes, that we delivered to those Pakistani generals who have been impressing members of the American government, and its military, for the past fifty years, ever since the days when the military alliance of CENTO (Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, the U.S., Great Britain) seemed to be just the ticket, and the Pakistani generals would always be trustworthy because, as the Dulles brothers knew, "Islam is a bulwark against Communism." That was what they knew. The problem is all that they didn't know about Islam.
Not much has changed.
Posted by: Hugh![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/nav-commenters.gif)
at June 30, 2008 12:58 AM
$30 billion was not enough, Sir. So now they are tripling it.
"US plans to triple non-security aid to Pakistan in new strategy"
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jDmCNfDv5y1IKHN_dzngMKArhVPw
This "new strategy" should do the trick.
Posted by: arjun.sevak at June 30, 2008 1:26 AM
From above...
"In recent days, his followers have entered Peshawar and intimidated judges. They have warned people that only Sharia law can prevail and they've also shut down women's polling stations."
Ummm... the womens have different polling stations? Oh yeah, I forget... islam elevates womens! Geez.
I'm with you Hugh, we've spent untold ba-zillions on a pipe dream (one that I initially supported, sad to say) and it's high time we were out of there. I would like to suggest that we leave a clear message to inhibit aggression against the west though. A present to those that say, "Only sharia law can prevail".
at June 30, 2008 1:36 AM
Why are we pretending these are all real countries (including Jordan), please remind me again?
Posted by: Lt. Presley O'Bannon at June 30, 2008 1:39 AM
arjun.sevak
Great link, but...
That was NOT the kind of "present" I was thinking of. What are we doing to ourselves? I would like to get off of this bus now. I just wish there was somewhere better to go. I know I should be grateful to live where and how I do. And I am. But this is just crazy and I hate supporting it, even indirectly.
Posted by: praxis9 at June 30, 2008 1:52 AM
The truth is that Pakistan doesn't want to do anything about the Taliban. They want to co-exist with them, with each side following agreed upon rules of coexistence.
Unfortunately, Pakistan is finding out that the Taliban don't abide by rules. They make their own God-given rules, and they expect everyone to abide by them.
In the 1920s, Mussolini decided to break the power of the Mafia in Sicily. He appointed Cesare Mori, the "iron Prefect" to go to Sicily and break the power of the Mafia on the island. Moro, using brutal tactics, suceeded spectacularly. Were Moro's tactics justified?
I would say yes, and I would also say that brutality would be more than justified in breaking the power of the Taliban in Pakistan, but unlike Mussolin's Italy, there's no will to do anything.
The next thing we hear will be that Pakistan and the Taliban have reached a new agreement.
Posted by: rational at June 30, 2008 2:15 AM
Another "work accident" in peshawar.
"Seven killed in blast in Pakistan's Khyber - residents"
http://in.reuters.com/article/southAsiaNews/idINIndia-34291020080630
Posted by: arjun.sevak at June 30, 2008 2:34 AM
They seem to be having a party.
"Large explosion heard in Pakistani capital; TV reports blasts in nearby Rawalpindi"
http://www.pr-inside.com/large-explosion-heard-in-pakistani-capital-r673659.htm
at June 30, 2008 2:42 AM
From the article:
note this phraseology, describing the activities of these people, who are described as 'religious elements' and 'religious militants'; they have been "visiting various local shops and hotels, threatening the people".
Scenes like that belong in old movies when the Wild West villains, or the outlaw Bikie gang, ride into town. Except that under Islam, Mob rule is Law, is Sharia, and the Muslim Mobsters feel completely entitled to flout and annihilate all other systems of law.
These thugs, these standover men, have "entered Peshawar and intimidated judges". Presumably they regard the judges as insufficiently Islamic.
Memo: observe the contexts in which the phrase 'sharia law' appears, in this article.
For example, the lead paragraph:
"The Taliban has broken-off peace negotiations with the government and its followers have entered Peshawar, threatening and intimidating. They say only the Sharia law can now prevail."
Further down: "They have warned people that only Sharia law can prevail and they've also shut down women's polling stations."
Let's remember that paragraph, next time Muslim spokespeople in the West start demanding the right to practise 'sharia' or 'sharia law'.
Because that 'sharia' which they want to practise, which they want us, bit by bit, to 'recognise', is no different in its sources or in its substance from the 'sharia' that the jihadis in this story are setting out to impose, in full force, in Pakistan, and everywhere else.
A good article to keep up one's sleeve, for the instruction of those who do not yet quite understand what sharia is.
at June 30, 2008 7:59 AM
The problem is all that they didn't know about Islam.
Not much has changed.
Posted by: Hugh at June 30, 2008 12:58 AM
Giving Bush administration a pass is another form of "political correctness". Why, after Pakistan's known ties to 9/11, Taliban and terror attacks on India, was Pakistan not placed on notice? Why was Pakistan named an "ally" against terror? Did Wahhabbis in Riyadh, also neck-deep in terror, twist Bush's arm to include Pakistan as an "ally"? Why was India, having suffered at Pakistan's terrorism, not an ally against terror? What followed was A Q Khan, deals with Taliban (which arte now falling apart) and Bhutto assassination, not to mention shelter for Al-Qaueda).
Take a close look and the alligence with Pakistan has been counter-productive to American interests, the only counter-arguement could be.... "but then so are alligence with Saudi Arabia and the phony war-on-terror".
Giving Bush administration a pass has only endangered, not secured, America.
Just my 2 cents.
at June 30, 2008 8:32 AM
Whats the point in fighting to keep the Talaban from getting an operational base in Afganistan if Pakistan gives them one?
Posted by: Ruebacca at June 30, 2008 10:36 AM
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