Word: swats
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Military officials, however, maintain that the months-long delay was essential for preparing for what is sure to be a long, difficult and drawn-out fight. The battle for Swat and its surrounding areas provided vital counterinsurgency training tools for the military, which also spent recent months cutting off supply lines to the militants in South Waziristan, hoping to weaken their defenses...
...Swat operation, still considered incomplete by some camps, holds many more lessons for Waziristan. Some 360 soldiers died in the battle for Swat, 60 of them officers, proving that military operations in difficult, mountainous areas against a committed guerrilla army that is familiar with the terrain can be costly. South Waziristan holds even harsher terrain, with less infrastructure, and the military will have to resort to even longer supply lines through enemy territory...
...offensive may also prove to be more challenging because, unlike the Swat Valley - a scenic, tourist-friendly area whose residents depend on outsiders for income and trade and income - South Waziristan has historically been closed to outsiders. Even in Swat, which political leaders have declared a victory, insurgents are still ambushing military convoys and launching suicide bombings against civilian and security targets, proving, as many local residents have long attested, that Taliban leaders are still present in many of the region's villages...
...with Swat, the long lead time before the attack on South Waziristan allowed more than 100,000 residents to flee the area and go to camps set up for an expected flood of refugees. While this massive influx of displaced persons risks a humanitarian disaster, especially if the operation is not wrapped up before the onset of winter, it does allow the military to work unimpeded without risking civilian casualties. Still, the camps, if not managed properly, can cause widespread resentment and frustration for displaced civilians, and provide fertile ground for anti-government propaganda...
...with the military operation. In order to fill the power vacuum, the civilian government will have to follow quickly behind with infrastructure, schools, medical clinics and courts - key elements whose absence allowed the Taliban to flourish in the first place. There, too, a lesson can be taken from the Swat experience. Military officials in the Swat Valley recently released thousands of low-level Taliban captives into the custody of local authorities, who have neither the infrastructure to hold nor the facilities to try the militants...