As well as other jihad activity elsewhere. Even worse, they no doubt facilitated a great deal of this with money they received from the U.S. to fight terrorism, as they have done before. But they’re still our ally, illustrating the absurdity of U.S. foreign policy.
“Pakistan’s Hand in the Rise of International Jihad,” by Carlotta Gall, New York Times, February 6, 2016:
TUNIS — PRESIDENT ASHRAF GHANI of Afghanistan has warned in several recent interviews that unless peace talks with Pakistan and the Taliban produce results in the next few months, his country may not survive 2016. Afghanistan is barely standing, he says, after the Taliban onslaught last year, which led to the highest casualties among civilians and security forces since 2001.
“How much worse will it get?” Mr. Ghani asked in a recent television interview. “It depends on how much regional cooperation we can secure, and how much international mediation and pressure can be exerted to create rules of the game between states.”
What he means is it depends on how much international pressure can be brought to bear on Pakistan to cease its aggression.
Critics of the Afghan leadership say it’s not Pakistan’s fault that its neighbor is falling apart. They point to the many internal failings of the Afghan government: political divisions, weak institutions, warlords and corruption.
But experts have found a lot of evidence that Pakistan facilitated the Taliban offensive. The United States and China have been asking Pakistan to persuade the Taliban to make peace, but Afghanistan argues that Islamabad has done nothing to rein in the Taliban, and if anything has encouraged it to raise the stakes in hopes of gaining influence in any power-sharing agreement.
This behavior is not just an issue for Afghanistan. Pakistan is intervening in a number of foreign conflicts. Its intelligence service has long acted as the manager of international mujahedeen forces, many of them Sunni extremists, and there is even speculation that it may have been involved in the rise of the Islamic State.
The latest Taliban offensive began in 2014. United States and NATO forces were winding down their operations in Afghanistan and preparing to withdraw when Pakistan decided, after years of prevarication, to clear Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters from their sanctuary in Pakistan’s tribal area of North Waziristan.
The operation was certainly a serious endeavor — Taliban bases, torture chambers and ammunition dumps were busted, town bazaars were razed and over one million civilians were displaced.
But the militants were tipped off early, and hundreds escaped, tribesmen and Taliban fighters said. Many fled over the border to Afghanistan, just at the vulnerable moment when Afghanistan was assuming responsibility for its own security. Ninety foreign fighters with their families arrived in Paktika Province that summer, to the alarm of Afghan officials.
Further along the border in Paktika Province, Taliban fighters occupied abandoned C.I.A. bases and outposts. A legislator from the region warned me that they would use the positions to project attacks deeper into Afghanistan and even up to Kabul. Some of the most devastating suicide bomb attacks occurred in that province in the months that followed….

Walter Sieruk says
Even the idea of having worthwhile, constructive “negotiations” with the Taliban is sheer folly. For the deceptive and disingenuous Taliban have proven many times over, by their own actions, that they are a ruthless, brutal vicious gang of thugs with no honor. So in any kind of “dialogue” the Taliban will speak the truth only when it happened to suite them. The rest of the time they will be speaking half-truths and also be outright lying. Likewise, the Taliban will keep their word in anything that they may happen to promise only and long as in fits into their agenda and no longer. So before engaging of the foolishness of attempting to have genuine “talks for a peace alliance” with Taliban, the officials of the current government would do well to heed the wisdom of Sun Tzu found in THE ART OF WAR. For it instructs “We cannot enter into an alliance neighboring’s princes, until we are acquainted with their designs.” To put this in a more updated and current way, it may be said that “We cannot enter into a peace alliance with the Taliban until we know the actual intentions and real schemes.”
JIMJFOX says
Walter- it is MUCH simpler than that- in a word, “TAQIYYA”.
Negotiation assumes a basis of good faith- ergo, Muslims cannot be bargained with. EVER.
mortimer says
It’s much more complicated than that. You would know that if you had read the hadiths and Sira.
jayell says
I believe that Pakistan is widely recognised as a ‘failed State’. Who in their right mind would trust a ‘failed State’? And of course, it’s Islamic. Which probably explains the failure. And in any case, anything Islamic is automatically untrustworthy. So this story is so, so predictable.
Shane says
Pakistan is best described as a backward Muslim country where jihad and barbaric and misogynistic sharia law are very popular. It is insane to take any immigrants from this jihad country.
By The Numbers – The Untold Story of Muslim Opinions & Demographics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSPvnFDDQHk
The Myth of the Tiny Radical Muslim Minority: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7TAAw3oQvg Pew Poll, Muslims Like Sharia Law: http://www.pewforum.org/2013/04/30/the-worlds-muslims-religion-politics-society-overview/
gravenimage says
Pakistan facilitated massive Taliban offensive in Afghanistan
…………………………
No–really? Aren’t your glad they’re our “ally”? sarc/off
quotha raven says
to Gravenimage – My sentiments exactly. I was just about to quote the same bit – “Pakistan facilitated massive Taliban offensive in Afghanistan” with my response: “Ya think?” Anyone who doesn’t know this has been sleeping very deeply indeed!.
Cheers!
quotha raven
Angemon says
Pakistan has nukes. Those nukes can “accidentally” fall in the wrong hands if the jiziya stops flowing.
sidney penny says
How the Taliban tricked and assassinated Ahmad Shah Massoud
At the time the Taliban were being supported by Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence service (IS.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/WOL309A.html
The Mojahedin leader’s assassination just before the fall of the Taliban has made his portrait an icon for post-Taliban Afghanistan and helped legitimise the political influence of those who fought at his side, first against the Russians and then against the Taliban.
JIMJFOX says
First three ‘cabs off the rank’ to be nuked–
1. Pakistan
2. Saudi Arabia
3. Qatar
Champ says
obama: what an evil man.
And yesterday when Lady Gaga sang the National Anthem at the Super Bowl–and so *beautifully* I might add–I felt a renewed sense of hope for our beloved America …
We need Real Hope & Change: Ted Cruz 2016!
https://youtu.be/tyqkN3zezso
Champ says
Simply click “Watch on YouTube” to hear her sing 🙂
Halaku says
“Pakistan decided, after years of prevarication, to clear Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters from their sanctuary in Pakistan’s tribal area of North Waziristan”
It’s strange that the great NYT and the reporter still don’t get it after all these years that there are two Talibans in Pakistan – the Afghan Taliban, which has been funded, trained and armed by Pakistan; and the NW tribal Tehrik-e-Taliban, Pakistan, which the Pakistan army has been fighting for many years.
The Afghan Taliban, which is now back in action in Afghanistan, is really the Pakistani army by proxy. Anyone who doesn’t have a very short memory, remembers the notorious “Airlift of Evil” when Pakistan’s Musharraf, clandestinely arranged for thousands of Pakistani officers to escape Kunduz in northern Afghanistan, by air, when it was surrounded by the allies.