Word: tribalization
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...deaths of dozens of militants and ten soldiers - Pakistan's Islamist extremists have retaliated with a series of attacks that have killed more than 180 people, most of them soldiers and police. A U.S. intelligence report this week concluded that Pakistan's policy of non-engagement in the lawless tribal areas along its border with Afghanistan has been a complete failure and allowed al-Qaeda to regroup. Washington is already ratcheting up the pressure for Pakistan to do more...
...Musharraf really does take both gloves off in the tribal areas, that will just increase the likelihood of a split in the army, according to Hamid Gul, former head of the powerful Pakistani intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). "The officer's cadre are liberal, secular, they come from the elite classes. But the rank and file of the army were never secular, they were always religious," says Gul. "If there is a face-off between the army and people, the leadership may lose control of the army. The army does not feel happy. They are from the same streets...
Meantime, in a telling twist, the spate of suicide bombings in Pakistan seems to have cooled the immediate sense of crisis in Afghanistan. Word on the streets of Kabul is that the suicide bombers from Pakistan's tribal areas who until recently headed west into Afghanistan to train Afghan militants or carry out attacks themselves are now heading east into the cities of Pakistan, where they have new motives and better targets to attack. "Normally the Pakistanis come to Afghanistan, but now they are busier in Pakistan," says Waheed Muzhda, an Afghan political analyst who worked for the foreign ministry...
Probably, but it may have happened anyway. Growing resentment against Musharraf's heavy-handed tactics has fueled defiance across the country. Rule of law in the tribal areas, already weak, has collapsed entirely. A 2006 peace accord with Islamic militants in North Waziristan, near the Afghan border, forced the army back to the barracks, allowing al-Qaeda to flourish, according to the National Intelligence Estimate. Now the agreement has failed, and al-Qaeda is even stronger...
...result of the military's "surge" strategy is that the U.S. has handed over to Sunni tribal sheiks much greater responsibility for their security - and even the weapons to back it up - in exchange for severing their links to al-Qaeda. That's a manageable risk while U.S. forces are nearby; if they depart, it becomes tinder in a dry forest. The danger would be not just sectarian slaughter but outright anarchy as well. "Our immediate concern," says a senior Arab diplomat, "is that sending a signal of complete withdrawal could encourage some elements in every faction in every political...