The Trouble with Pakistan
Peter Brookes casts a baleful eye at the problem a lot of people have been ignoring. What to do about Pakistan.
Pakistan’s getting worse on the terrorism front - or maybe the problem has just grown more obvious. Either way, we’ve got a major terrorism threat on our hands.
Britain’s domestic spooks, the MI5, revealed last month that they’ve foiled five terror attacks since the horrific 7/7 subway-bus bombings in London in 2005. That’s great news. But now they’re tracking 30 new plots, involving 200 cells and 1,600 people in the United Kingdom - mostly of Pakistani origin, according to the Financial Times.
Of course, those are just the plots they know of …
… The question has become unavoidable: Is Islamabad serious about fighting extremism and terror?
True, Pakistan has made invaluable contributions to combating al Qaeda over the past five years, capturing scores of key leaders and providing tips that led to the foiling of deadly plots, including this summer’s attempted airline bombings and the Barot arrest.
And, yes, Musharraf took a political risk in late October, OK’ing the Predator missile strike against the compound thought to be hosting al Qaeda No. 2 Ayman al Zawahiri for dinner. (It missed him by just hours.)
But the facts on the ground indicate that Musharraf’s policy in the tribal areas isn’t undermining the Taliban or al Qaeda - and may be facilitating their resurgence.
Pakistan needs to do more to fully deny these, indeed, all, terrorist groups the use of its territory. As long as it fails, both Pakistan and the rest of the world will pay a hefty price.
Musharraf has a tough balancing act just to stay in power, serving our needs while keeping Islamist elements at bay. But as Brookes points out, the balance is tipping in al-Qaeda’s favor. In addition to the threat of terrorists exported out of South Asia, the ongoing existence of Taliban refugees and al-Qaeda operatives up to and including Osama bin Laden from Pakistan proper to the tribal areas is unacceptable and dangerous.
But Musharraf may well be better than any alternative government Pakistan is likely to produce in the short-term. For those who care to moralize about the United States’ relationship with a dictator, a quick glance at the history of Pakistan and other Asian nations such as Thailand shows the expedient of relatively benign military governments has been key to maintaining political stability. This, in any case, is not the point in the stream to push for a change of horses.
Topics: Uncategorized
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:31 pm on Tuesday, December 12, 2006
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