Word: talibans
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It’s time for us to face the facts—all of Pakistan’s attempts at appeasing the Taliban have been a failure, and there’s no reason to expect any differently in the future...
...most recent concession came in February, when the Pakistani government accepted a peace agreement with Taliban elements active in its Swat Valley to allow Sharia law in the region. Predictably, the Taliban reneged on the agreement and encroached further on the nation’s capital, Islamabad. Another attempt to open negotiations on new terms earlier this month also failed. With such a record on its hands and the Taliban growing increasingly brazen in its maneuvers, the Pakistani government must reevaluate its policy. With the help of the international community, it can and should use all of its military resources...
...intelligence community can also actively work in the area by gathering information about the Taliban’s movements, targets, and tactics as well as recruiting allies against the Taliban. Promisingly, President Obama has continued the use of President Bush’s use of CIA covert operations and even increased them in some areas. The new director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Leon Panetta, confirmed this in an interview, saying that the agency’s campaign against militants in Pakistan’s tribal areas was the “most effective weapon” the Obama administration...
...officials have acknowledged that anti-Taliban bombardments were carried out while declining to comment on the extent of civilian casualties. In expressing regret over the incident, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday that the joint investigation would take time to come up with answers. Meanwhile, Gen. David McKiernan, commander of US forces and NATO forces in Afghanistan, moved to cast doubt on the emerging narrative. "We have some other information that leads us to distinctly different conclusions about the cause of the civilian casualties," he said, without providing further details...
This scenario is frustratingly familiar for many Afghans. Last August in Herat province, which borders Farah to the north, Afghan and U.N. officials found evidence that up to 90 civilian had perished in a U.S. operation. The military initially disputed the findings, saying no civilians had died, only Taliban. But after a high-level investigation, widespread protests and heavy pressure from President Karzai, the military revised the civilian death toll to 33. In the aftermath, McKiernan issued a directive that commanders in the field err on the side of caution when fighting near populated areas, opting for disengagement rather than...