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Counterinsurgency - Lessons from Pakistan
There's little news coming out from independent sources about the Pakistani army's campaign in Waziristan. The suspicion amongst the international journalists and analysts is that the Pakistani army doesn't have the capacity to take out militants without causing serious collateral damage to civilians, and so the result of the present action will be further militancy in the future.
However, some journalists who have seen the government's efforts during the Waziristan campaign and before that in Swat have come away with a sense that the government has realised that succeeding against militancy is about resettlement and reconstruction as much as it is about blowing stuff up.
David Rose of The Mail, a British daily, spent a good long time in Peshawar, Swat and Dera Ismail Khan. Amid calls from U.S. and British officials for Pakistan to do more, David says that what Pakistan is doing, it is doing well, and ISAF forces on the other side of the Durand Line could learn a thing or two from the Pakistani approach.
David illustrates what the Pakistani state successes by pointing out how it dealt with refugees from the Swat campaign.
"When I last visited Pakistan in June, at the height of the Swat campaign, there were more than two million internally displaced persons (IDPs) living on the scorching plains in camps and relatives’ spare rooms.
But a remarkably efficient army-led transport and reconstruction effort has meant more than 95 per cent of them have been back home for weeks."
David's reporting suggests that the Taliban's ability to alienate practically everyone once in power is proving an asset to the Pakistani state.
"‘The people supported the Taliban because they felt the state was not giving them justice. But now they are finished," says one man from Mingora.
Extrapolating, Londonstani wonders if what David saw in Mingora is applicable to Pakistan as a whole? If we look past all the "slave of the West" talk, does the Taliban gain support when the state seems to have failed to provide the basics? And if the Taliban does manage to rule an area, does the state have a window of opportunity to prove to the population that they are better off without Taliban rule? But, doesn't that mean we could avoid all of this if the government could do a good job actually doing its job (like, you know, governing) in the first place.
Doesn't that make the solution seem tantalisingly close at hand? Help Pakistan govern properly.
Unfortunately, this is harder than it seems. In fact, it's so hard the government seems to be concentrating on letting people down gently instead of building up their hopes. A popular political banner at the moment proclaims, "The worst democracy is better than the best dictatorship." Londonstani is not so sure everyone agrees.
Nice write-up. I'd like to
Nice write-up. I'd like to post it with your credits on my blog (Haqeeqat.Org) under David Rose's article.
Re Astan, Bammy has lost
Re Astan,
Bammy has lost the right wing in America. Sample:
Tony Blankley
"Now, three agonizing, rationalizing, equivocating, twisting, turning months of White House squirming later - even a blind man could see that this president, and this White House staff, do not have the stomach to continue the war in Afghanistan. They are trying to avoid it. They don't want to fight it. They think they have great things to do here at home. They know they don't have anything they want to do in Afghanistan.
If the Taliban and al Qaeda retake Afghanistan, the world (and America) will have hell to pay for the consequences. But this president and this White House do not have it in them to lead our troops to victory in Afghanistan. So they shouldn't try. The price will be high for whatever foreign policy failures we will endure in the next three years. Let's not add to that price the pointless murder of our finest young troops in a war their leader does not believe in.
Bring them home. We'll need them later."
===================
Bye now. See ya in NYC.
Good luck chuck: Dont you
Good luck chuck: Dont you know its all a part of the liberuls plan to weaken america to the point that they can establish their nazi-communist muslim paradise of enforced homosexuality and sharia laws on the streets of Midtown, USA? Where you been, man?
However, seeing Obama get his balls cut off by Benjamin Nethanyahu does suggest that this president isnt exactly encouraging for his ability to handle the world the next three years.
@ Fnord, Well Hello again.
@ Fnord,
Well Hello again. I retired the old nomme du cyber.
That's all very funny, I actually don't think it's Nazi America. It's Weimar America, complete with the hyperinflation.
It's an article of faith amongst the Transnational types that national sovereignty must be subordinated to supra-national (unelected) bodies. But this stubborn nation wants it's country, and it's Constitution. It must be humbled.
It's an article of faith amongst the International Left that the most dangerous nations in the world are the US and Israel.
And we must be bought to heel.
The era of American arrogance and being sometimes aloof is over. The "Commander in Chief" needs all that for himself, and by God he does it well. As far as the USA being "arrogant" (which in my experience most Europeans are proud of their nation and their accomplishments as well, but never mind)...well the USA will now be humbled and humiliated every chance it gets. Hi, I'm Bammy, watch me bow. And bend over for the camera, I do it well.
And I'll apologize for you, dis my predecessor and blame him for all and take every chance I can to rub your nose in shit in front of strangers.
Finally, I will slip out of town while my Terrorist Defense Lawyer breaks centuries of Law, precedent and common sense to bring the KSM show trial to the scene of the crime. If you never followed a terrorist trial, they are without remorse and indeed in his case personally laughs in the faces of his victims families. And he or his lawyer - and he doesn't have to get one - get access to the prosecutions classified evidence - or it's a mistrial.
And - I get to rub rival city to DC -- that's NYC - noses in ash. Again. The spotlight should be on DC, upstarts.
Oh and as a minor consolation I get to break the budget of that uppity NY Governor Patterson. Teach him to disobey.
(this is former pointy ears BTW).
And I want them out because,
And I want them out because, as I said, it's a waste now. He means to leave. Badly. So let it be quick.
Let America and the World take their lumps (EXTRA LUMPY). The voters have spoken. And now they must suffer.
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