Comments on: The Waziristan peace deal

By: Hot Air » Blog Archive » NYT: Everything comin’ up roses for Al Qaeda in Waziristan

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 06:28:21 +0000

[...] The stories about AQ taking over the Pakistani border areas are the Sunni jihadist equivalent of the Iranian nuclear saga: it’s a slow-motion train wreck, it gets worse with each passing moment, and there’s seemingly nothing the west can do short of watered-down sanctions that won’t make the problem considerably worse. Bryan called the Waziristan peace deal between Musharraf and the tribal elders a “surrender” days after it was announced; it was obvious within weeks, as cross-border attacks on coalition troops in Afghanistan increased, that it was a disaster; and the Times itself finally administered the last rites in an article back in December, declaring that the tribal areas had become “a Taliban mini-state” infested with foreign fighters and would-be suicide bombers. AQ groupie Peter Bergen warned WaPo readers back in July not to assume the leadership was finished, either. That warning proved prescient a month later when the UK airline plotters were linked to higher-ups in Al Qaeda, and it proved prescient again a few weeks ago when the Daily Mail claimed that a “senior AQ terrorist with close links to Osama Bin Laden” was behind the cell that planned to kidnap and behead British Muslim soldiers. Meanwhile, Musharraf’s looking to expand the treaties with the tribal elders and Pakistan’s foreign minister wants NATO to make a deal with the Taliban, even as suicide bombs are going off inside Pakistani courtrooms and captured AQ operatives are accusing Pakistani intelligence of sheltering Mullah Omar. [...]

By: Hot Air » Blog Archive » Good news: Pakistani tribal area now Talibanistan

Mon, 11 Dec 2006 20:25:04 +0000

[...] Who could have seen this coming? Besides Bryan, Bill Roggio, and everyone else in the world, I mean. Islamic militants are using a recent peace deal with the government to consolidate their hold in northern Pakistan, vastly expanding their training of suicide bombers and other recruits and fortifying alliances with Al Qaeda and foreign fighters, diplomats and intelligence officials from several nations say. The result, they say, is virtually a Taliban mini-state. [...]

By: NPP

NPP — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 19:50:55 +0000

To be honest, the Pakistanis never had serious control of those areas anyway. The Pashtun areas have had a defacto level of autonomy since at least the late 70′s. After 9/11, Pakistan would send in big, lumbering formations of troops, and the AQ and insurgents would just melt away into the mountains and conduct harrasing attacks on them. The Pakistani Army is not well trained or equipped to operate against an advanced insurgent force, especially in that kind of terrain.

Still, it’s pretty disheartening for the Pakistanis to give up like this. I’d guess that part of what’s in play here is survival of the Musharaf regime. I don’t want to imagine the disaster that would ensue if an Islamist coup took over. Although this scenario receives almost no attention on blogs or in the press, it’s many times more dangerous than the Iran pseuodo-crisis we’re in now.

There will possibly be a secret agreement that will allow some coalition forces to attack insurgents in that area although I’d guess it would be very limited – probably to aircraft only. Of course Pakistan could never openly support such a thing for a variety of reasons.

By: Rick

Rick — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 17:44:15 +0000

It’s only a matter of time before the left starts chiming in on how this (and Israel’s recent war with Hezbollah) shows we can negotiate with terrorists.

By: Pablo

Pablo — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 15:28:57 +0000

They say there won’t be any cross border shennanigans, but if there are, there won’t be any Paki troops to look to for protection and political cover.

Under this scenario, what keeps us from rearranging their rubble at will? Are they in Pakistan, or are they not?

By: entagor

entagor — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 15:17:12 +0000

I guess we know where Quasimodo is hiding.

By: labwrs

labwrs — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 13:43:17 +0000

Bill saw this coming. Osama bin Laden seems to have achieved his goal. The Taliban has certainly carved a sanctuary out of Waziristan for itself.

Great. Just great. BUT does this afford us an opportunity with the Pak Army (OK stop laughing!) out of the area IF we do those “hot pursuits”? Maybe it is the old flycatching strategy..set them up something SO SWEET they must all flock to it and the BAMMO!

Well..we can dream cant we?