Pakistan offers cease-fire to Taliban; agrees to impose Islamic law.

[Occam Bandage]

PESHAWAR, Pakistan – The government agreed to impose Islamic law and suspend a military offensive across much of northwest Pakistan on Monday in concessions aimed at pacifying the Taliban insurgency spreading from the border region to the country's interior.

The announcement came as three missiles believed fired from a U.S. drone aircraft destroyed a house used by a local Taliban commander elsewhere in the northwest, killing 30 people, witnesses said.

The cease-fire, in Pakistan's Swat Valley hundreds of miles from the missile strike in Kurram, will likely concern the United States, which has warned Pakistan that such peace agreements allow al-Qaida and Taliban militants operating near the Afghan border time to rearm and regroup...

...Amir Haider Khan Hoti, the chief minister for the North West Frontier Province, said authorities would impose Islamic law in Malakand region, which includes the Swat Valley. Swat is a one-time tourist haven in the northwest where extremists have gained sway through brutal tactics including beheading residents, burning girls schools and attacking security forces.

(Much more at link)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090216/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistan

The Taliban are among the worst people on Earth. I endorse any attempt by Obama to fulfill our promise to reconstruct Afghanistan for the Afghan people. However, we cannot help Afghanistan so long as the Taliban marauds the countryside destroying schools and equipment, and the Taliban will continue to exist and exist in strength so long as they are protected like this by the Pakistani government. It is much like Vietnam: we can extend the war and the reconstruction effort eternally, we can launch bombing raids at targets of opportunity across the border, but we can never win, for we are fighting an eternally defensive (in the strategic sense) guerrilla war against an enemy that will never, ever give up of its own volition. Guerrilla wars can only be won through full, multi-spectrum, benevolent, and expanding control of the territory in which the enemy makes its base; so long as a North Vietnam or a Pakistan exists relatively unmolested, the war in South Vietnam or Afghanistan cannot be won.

Just as Bush's foreign policy was judged primarily by his war in Iraq, I think Obama's will be judged in large part by how he handles the inherited problem of Afghanistan. As much as I am in favor of winning the Afghan war, if Pakistan continues to refuse to govern its border regions (or, worse, continues to legitimize Taliban presence in those regions), the war is nothing more than an expensive attempt to delay the inevitable, and I cannot support such an action.

[Idealism]

1. We need to demand Pakistan sell their nuclear weapons to us

The biggest concern is an ISI-backed coup that could take control of government and start auctioning off what little of value they have left. The nuclear warheads will be high on that list, and there are numerous terrorist groups who have the resources to purchase these things at firesale prices.

[Occam Bandage]

2. Somehow I don't see them agreeing to that sale. nt

[Idealism]

3. The country is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy

They either sell the weapons to us, or they lose out on the billions we send them a year through USAID. Simple as that.

[msongs]

4. perhaps the problem is tribal society/culture as much as religion?

usually a tribal culture is dominated by the head MALES and everyone else is subservient. The MALE leaders rule the roost, the other men are subservient, and woman are reduced to the role of child bearing servants of the men. Superstitions of religion are imposed by the head MALES in such a way as to justify the male domination and keep the underlings in line and under control.

well, that's my theory. could be partly or completely wrong.

Msongs

[Occam Bandage]

6. I agree with you fully.

I think religions are symptoms of culture, and not driving forces behind them. The Taliban's sickening oppression of women is, I think, mainly cultural and justified by religion, rather than being religiously driven.

[Life Long Dem]

5. I fully endorse Obama on this as well... and he does need to get the whole region under control

We all see it spiraling out of control. So if President Obama is trying to stop this spiraling, then this is something everyone should be on his ass about as well.

[a777pilot]

7. Way ta go Bobo!

Quote:

With two missile strikes over the past week, the Obama administration has expanded the covert war run by the Central Intelligence Agency inside Pakistan, attacking a militant network seeking to topple the Pakistani government.

Unquote.


Now we are getting involved in a possible civil war in a nuclear armed country. Brilliant!

[bemildred]

8. Sounds like "appeasement" to me.

Taliban are not invaders you know. You need to buy yourself a clue. Not all Afghans are Taliban, but damn near all Taliban are Afghans, or anyway locals. Most of them don't come from outside. You need to ask why the sovereign Pakistani government is in the position of making deals with these "terrorists"? It's not because they would not prefer to lay down the law.

[a777pilot]

9. Keep Your Stupidity In Our Own Country

Quote:

Taliban are not invaders you know. You need to buy yourself a clue. Not all Afghans are Taliban, but damn near all Taliban are Afghans, or anyway locals. Most of them don't come from outside. You need to ask why the sovereign Pakistani government is in the position of making deals with these "terrorists"? It's not because they would not prefer to lay down the law.

Unquote.

The Taliban and their idiot "life style" is their own business. Do what ever you want in your fucked up country. Enslave your children and women if that is what your stupid religion teaches. Kill your own countrymen if they don't toe the line.

BUT.......

Keep it in your own country. If you try to take it outside your borders, especially by force, don't be surprised if some "victim" country will get pissed off and come kill you.

Got it?


Good. Then it is time for the US forces to go home.

[bemildred]

10. Whoa, Nice rant.

I don't really see what you mean, but I can tell you feel strongly about it.