Pakistan Mosque Bombed, 50 Killed;
US: Pakistani Military Elements Support Taliban
In Pakistan, Taliban detonated a bomb in a mosque at Jamrud in the Khyber agency near the Afghanistan border on Friday, killing 50 and wounding 100. The mosque is frequented by paramilitary troops who man a nearby government checkpoint, and who were probably the target of the blast. There is a sense in which Taliban violence in the Federally Administered Tirbal Agencies is a civil war between factions of Pushtuns.
AP has video:
Meanwhile on Friday the US accused elements in the Pakistani military of backing the Taliban.
Pakistani commentators generally greeted the new Obama policy toward their country with skepticism. (See below).
End/ (Not Continued)
posted by Juan Cole @ 3/28/2009 01:19:00 AM
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6 Comments:
Why does the Pakistani elite allow the Taliban to blow up schools? Because both fear the masses becoming educated. The elite class fear if the masses become educated they will compete for a piece of the glorious pie that has forever belonged ONLY to the elite few. The Taliban fears education because educated people begin to question religious teachings.
So, the elites of Pakistan and the Taliban have joined forces to keep 90% of the Pakistani people as uneducated servant class. BTW, have you noticed that the Taliban NEVER blows up the elite private schools? hmmmmmmmm
We have a President who campaigned about extending and expanding the war in Afghanistan and going to war in Pakistan as well even though we are not at war with Pakistan, but liberals would not listen or wished for more war. Now we have a President who is keeping the campaign promise to extend and expand war, and liberals must smile at the promise kept and turn from the destruction of war.
Conservatives are joyful to have a Democratic President who is just like George Bush. Let us continue the destruction of Afghanistan and add Pakistan.
Anonymous 7:38
Actually i watched a program on channel4 (UK) a few days ago and the bombings have targeted Private and government schools , but not madrassas that teach the Quran .
Also the talibans refuse to acknowledge that Islam Urges BOTH men and women to educate themselves, in fact education is part of the faith , and god in islam says ALL Muslims are equal but those who are educated are higher than those who do not take education seriously . the first sentence in the Quran says READ READ in the name of ALLAh . so i dont know why the taliban are against education because that s like being against the teachings of islam. I wish i could ask them that question , and show them the sura that talks about the important of Education . I bet you that the majority are illettrate and can not read the quran but just repeat what they learnt by heart . im sure of it .
Anonymous said: "We have a President who campaigned about extending and expanding the war in Afghanistan and going to war in Pakistan as well even though we are not at war with Pakistan, but liberals would not listen or wished for more war."
I voted for Barack Obama knowing his intentions about going after those who attacked our country. I don't see President Obama acting in any way like Bush. The international community is working with this administration to move our focus from one of military action alone to diplomacy and cooperation and building Afghanistan's civil infrastructures, a civilian surge, they call it.
I don't see how the civilian surge can happen until the roadside bombings and suicide bombings stop, however. There has to be some semblance of security in this environment created.
How would you propose to do it?
As part of new regional strategy, the demand on Pakistan to “cut ties between parts of its government and the Taliban” seems to be at odds with the desire to “peel away up to three quarters of the Taliban’s rank and file in Afghanistan from the Taliban’s leadership”. Instead of engaging in the anti-ISI campaign, the US should see Pakistan’s ISI’s Taliban links as assets in America’s efforts to reconcile with the vast majority of the Taliban. The British already see the value of the ISI-Taliban ties. According to the New York Times, the British government has sent several dispatches to Islamabad in recent months asking that the ISI use its strategy meetings with the Taliban to persuade its commanders to scale back violence in Afghanistan before the August presidential election there. There are reports that the Taliban leaders based in Pakistan have closed ranks with their Afghan comrades to prepare for a new offensive in Afghanistan as the United States sends more troops there this year.
As to the US demand on Pakistan to stop focusing military resources on its ongoing rivalry with India, the failure to help resolve the long-standing Kashmir dispute and the recent Indian war rhetoric in the aftermath of Mumbai make such a demand practically unacceptable by Pakistanis, even if they agree on paper.
As is often said, the India-Pakistan dispute over Kashmir is much more about Indus water than about a piece of land. The headwaters of the Indus River are located in Kashmir. Whomever controls the headwaters, controls the river. The Indus is vital. It brings green fertile life wherever it flows. The Indus begins in Kashmir, then flows through Pakistan, then flows into mainland India. If India chose, since Kashmir is controlled by it, they could dam the Indus and change the flow of the river, as they are apparently doing at Baglihar over Chenab. Without fertile land to grow crops, Pakistan would become a desert and its people would starve.
Notwithstanding additional US aid to Pakistan, the unilateral and impractical demands on Pakistanis by the Obama administration while continuing Predator strikes and dismissing the strategic interests of Pakistan in its neighborhood, do not add up to a serious and workable strategy. Such a strategy may look good on paper but it will not lead to US success on the ground in Afghanistan.
Riaz Haq said: "Such a strategy may look good on paper but it will not lead to US success on the ground in Afghanistan."
I believe the chances of a negotiated settlement between all parties are far better with President Obama's administration than the previous administration.
Our State Dept has been working tirelessly to bring in the funding Pakistan and Afghanistan need to rebuild their respective economies. The UN seems focused now on these two struggling countries after eight years of neglect.
President Obama's administration is bringing in global partners to the negotiating table. I believe strategies will be perfected in these negotiations with all the parties involved.
After eight years of poor stewardship of the Bush administration, I can see that there will be a lot of heavy lifting to do before people have confidence in the processes and in each other.
There is yet goodwill between our people. And I pray that it will not be squandered in petty disputes. We in America are sacrificing.
It would be nice if those sacrifices were both appreciated and productive. We're all very weary of the self-imposed failures of the previous administration.
I wouldn't count on the patience of Americans much longer.
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