
I watched a documentary done by a woman on the Taliban in Pakistan. Pakistan has made peace with them in a large area of the Northeast where up to a million people live. The army soldiers on in the Tribal areas and is faced with massive casualties. The spy service is in bed with the terrorists and the government must walk a thin line for on one end of the country they are fighting an insurgency and on the other (in a struggle with India over the fate of Kashmir) they are backing the “freedom fighters”. The fundamentalists in the East and those in West are cut from the same cloth. The country lacks leadership and there are fundamentalists waiting in the wings as well as other factions. The country is unstable. US bombing of strategic targets is turned into a major propaganda tool by the Taliban, what with pictures of dead children, whether or not these were doctored is beside the point. Obama’s optimism is misplaced. Other NATO members including Canada are much more circumspect hoping that they can hold the Taliban at bay until a government not racked by corruption, a competent army and a police force that has the respect of the people and control and eradicate the opium problem. I am not crowing from the roof tops as one who sees the futility of fighting wars against an enemy that fades into the ranks of the civilians and threatens the lives of anyone who would give intelligence to the Allies. The border is a line in the stand. They are Pashtun on both sides of the border. We are there and will be until 2001. We can no cut and run or there will be a guarateed collapase and that would destabilize a huge area of Asia
Poor children in Pakistan are accepted in the Madrasahs where they are trained to hate the infidel and are presented with the opportunity of working for the greater glory of God. Often their parents are paid to have the kids in the school. The filmmaker spoke to a leading recruiter and what was extraordinary was the way he swayed back and forth, when just before we saw kids reciting the Koran doing the same thing. The students memorize the book just to ensure subservience. There will be no Martin Luther for the book is written in Arabic which no one understands. Religions in the Third World often employ similar techniques, not with mayhem on their minds but to rather to guarantee submission.
The Taliban has not been effective in Afghanistan since 9/11 but they will keep coming over the mountain and be mowed down. We are only playing into their fantasies. It is glorious to die with your boots on. Students clamour to be considered as suicide bombers. Iraq stands a chance, above all odds. If only America had just waited for Saddam to die. It wouldn’t have had that long, then the US could support a faction, but bottom line things are getting better, which leaves Obama with egg all over his face especially since he is going into a war no one thinks he can win.
photo from Hishaam Siddiqi






