Pakistan's War Is Peachy

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari believes the war against the Taliban and al Qaeda in the troubled Northwest Frontier Province is going well. "I think from where it was when we took over, we are in a much better place," Zardari told the Associated Press. "We used the force of the government and they (the militants) realized that there is a force here, that the people of Pakistan are to be reckoned to it." Zardari then goes on to say he hopes the new Obama administration will end the attacks in Pakistan's tribal areas. The Pakistani military launched operations against the Taliban in the lawless border agency of Bajaur in early August. This is a region where al Qaeda directs operations into northeastern Afghanistan. Senior al Qaeda leaders, including Ayman al Zawahiri, have sought shelter in the region. While U.S. intelligence officials say that the operation in Bajaur has reduced attacks across the border in Afghanistan’s Kunar province, the fighting has not gone well. The Pakistani military claims to have killed 1,500 Taliban fighters with minimal losses. The Taliban disputes these claims and contends that their forces have killed hundreds of Pakistani troops. In the past, the Taliban has been far more credible concerning casualties that the Pakistani military. The military has claimed to have captured ground in Bajaur, only to lose it several times. There is no counterinsurgency plan; instead, the military is conducting a scorched earth campaign and relying on artillery and airstrikes to defeat the Taliban. At the beginning of the operation, the military claimed they would clear Bajaur in three months. That deadline has passed, and a senior general said the fighting would last up to a year. The military is in the same situation in the settled district of Swat, an area that was once described as the Switzerland of Pakistan. The Taliban have held off the military for more than a year, and have killed hundreds of police, paramilitary troops, and soldiers. In North and South Waziristan, the Taliban openly rule and the government has taken the military operation off the table. The government has conducted more negotiations with the Taliban in Waziristan and assured them an operation would not take place. To counter Pakistan's lack of action in the Waziristan, the United States has focused on hitting Taliban and al Qaeda camps and safe houses in Waziristan in an attempt to blunt their ability to conduct attacks in the West and Afghanistan. Zardari claims these strikes hamper Pakistan's efforts to fight the Taliban. If Pakistan’s effort to run the Taliban and al Qaeda out of the northwest is going well, I'd hate to see what it looks like when things are going poorly.