Word: qaeda
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...common cause. But instead of channeling those talents toward building an empire, Mehsud is trying to bring one to its knees. The shadowy Pakistani Taliban commander, whose vertiginous rise to infamy landed him on 2008's TIME 100 List, has transformed the badlands of South Waziristan into al-Qaeda's most important redoubt. Among the atrocities attributed to Mehsud is the brazen assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in Dec. 2007. Mehsud has denied involvement, but even if he's innocent of that crime there's no shortage of reasons TIME dubbed him "an icon of global jihad...
...Pakistan has cooperated extensively with U.S. efforts to target al-Qaeda militants on its own soil, facilitating the capture of alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and scores of other operatives. Its army has lost several hundred men in clashes with various Pakistani Taliban groups in the tribal areas and the Swat Valley. Still, it's no secret that the Afghan Taliban's leadership continues to operate from the Pakistani city of Quetta, and reports of ongoing Pakistani backing for Taliban efforts in Afghanistan have surfaced regularly in recent years...
...Pakistan on a collision course. The Obama Administration has begun to talk of reconciliation with moderate Taliban elements, and some in the Pakistani leadership may be hoping to move Washington closer to the approach urged by Musharraf at the very beginning of the war: separating the Taliban from al-Qaeda...
...Administration's instincts are right to work toward some sort of endgame in Afghanistan - train the Afghan army and police, boost economic aid, do something about the corruption and talk to certain elements of the Taliban, making sure they understand we'll be back if al-Qaeda comes back. But it has to happen very quickly. (See pictures of the battle against the Taliban...
...What the Administration must absolutely resist is the temptation of more ambitious goals in Afghanistan, like rooting out the entire Taliban or fostering Western-style democracy. We must never forget that it was al-Qaeda who attacked us and not the Taliban, which is not an international terrorist group. If we make the all-too-common mistake of reducing the Taliban to al-Qaeda, it becomes an open-ended and endless...