Pakistan’s bows to Taliban; sets a dangerous precedent

Last Sunday night, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari was on 60 Minutes, CBS-TV’s news magazine show, insisting that his government does not intend to let Islamic extremists get a firm foothold in Pakistan.

On Monday, Zardari’s government struck a deal with the Taliban that permits the former iron-fisted rulers of Afghanistan to take control of the Swat Valley and impose Islamic law.

If the president believes that such appeasement will cause the Taliban to abandon their goal of setting up an Islamic theocracy in Islamabad, he’s in for a surprise. Ever since the Islamic extremists fled Afghanistan, in the face of the military invasion in 2001 led by the United States, and established camps in the mountain region of Pakistan, tribal chieftains have provided them with a safe haven.

Likewise, the presence of Osama bin Laden. head of al-Qaida and mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on U.S. soil, has served to energize Islamic militants in Pakistan. The Pakistani military has proven to be ineffective in going after the Taliban and al-Qaida and there are persistent reports that factions within the government, especially the intelligence service, sympathize with the extremists.

Against this backdrop comes President Zardari’s acceptance of the Taliban’s control of the Swat Valley.

“It is certainly reason for concern,” NATO spokesman James Appathurai said this week. “We should all be concerned by a situation in which extremists would have a safe haven. Without doubting the good faith of the Pakistani government, it is clear that the region is suffering very badly from extremists and we would not want it to get worse.”

NATO has 55,000 troops across the border in Afghanistan and many of them have come under attack by Taliban and al-Qaida fighters operating out of northwest Pakistan.

American troops

The United States also has thousands of troops, and President Obama has indicated another 17,000 could be on their way to help stabilize the country, prop up the democratically elected government of President Hamid Karzai and rid the country of the resurging Islamic extremists.

Although the Pakistanis believe the deal in Swat will end the violence, the history of the Taliban is anything but non violent.

In Swat, they have beheaded opponents and torched scores of girls schools in recent months, while gun battles between security forces and militants have killed hundreds.

Up to a third of the valley’s 1.5 million people have fled the scenic area.

In a dispatch from Islamabad, CNN quoted a woman, who fled with her three children, as saying, “The whole point is, if it’s not contained to Swat, it’s going to spill all over in Pakistan and the West also doesn’t realize the seriousness of the situation. Probably your next 9/11 is going to be from Swat.”

The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists were trained in al-Qaida’s camps in Afghanistan during the Taliban’s rein of terror. Bin Laden had been given safe haven in the country. It is from there that he orchestrated terrorist attacks around the world. The attacks on America’s mainland claimed more than 3,000 lives and triggered the invasion of Afghanistan. The ouster of the Taliban appeared to put the country on the path to recovery, but then President Bush withdrew American troops when he decided to invade Iraq.

During the time they governed Afghanistan, the Taliban imposed sharia, or strict Islamic law. Girls were banned from school, women were prohibited from being seen in public and all forms of entertainment were outlawed.

Now, they have a foothold in Pakistan — and the government of President Zardari is at risk.

Pakistan is America’s leading ally in the war on global terrorism, and its possession of nuclear weapons makes the situation all the more urgent for the Obama administration to address.