in Pakistan, the Taliban is winning- big.

[cali]

The gov't of Pakistan ceded control of Swat and other Northwestern Pakistan areas to the Taliban and gave them the go ahead to impose Sharia law there.

Pakistan president signs off on Islamic law deal
By ASIF SHAHZAD – 15 hours ago

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan's pro-U.S. president signed a regulation late Monday to put a northwestern district under Islamic law as part of a peace deal with the Taliban, going along after coming under intense pressure from members of his own party and other lawmakers.

Asif Ali Zardari's signature was a boon for Islamic militants who have brutalized the Swat Valley for nearly two years in demanding a new justice system. It was sure to further anger human rights activists and feed fears among the U.S. and other Western allies that the valley will turn into a sanctuary for militants close to Afghanistan.

Whatever criticism may come, Zardari can claim some political cover — the National Assembly voted unanimously Monday to adopt a resolution urging his signature, although at least one party boycotted. Earlier, a Taliban spokesman had warned lawmakers against opposing the deal.

Zardari's spokeswoman, Farahnaz Ispahani, confirmed the president signed the regulation Monday night.

His signing implemented a deal agreed to in February by provincial officials to impose Islamic law in the Swat Valley and surrounding areas in exchange for a cease-fire between security forces and the local Taliban.

<snip>
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hkiMxbHNH0BqgpWA2ZG6VD6wVTmAD97HPDKO0

Now clearly, U.S. drone attacks in the region are a disastrous policy. Obsama is completely wrong on this.

Pakistan is a Molotov cocktail just waiting for a match
By David Ignatius
Daily Star staff
Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Pakistan seems like a Molotov cocktail waiting for a match. Its ruling elite bickers over politics, while out on the streets Taliban insurgents step up their suicide attacks. Its military plays the role of national conciliator even as it worries about Muslim revolutionaries in its own ranks. Meanwhile, the United States, Pakistan's historic friend and benefactor, is symbolized in the popular mind by unmanned drones that cruise over the Western frontier assassinating Taliban militants by remote control.

Which is why two top Obama administration emissaries, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke and Admiral Michael Mullen, paid an urgent visit to Islamabad this week to explain the administration's new Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy. During a brief tour, they gathered evidence about Pakistan's crisis, and explored ways to help the country move back toward stability.

A hint of Pakistan's troubles came soon after Holbrooke and Mullen arrived Monday night. Anne Patterson, the highly regarded US ambassador, had assembled some of the nation's political elite to welcome the visiting Americans. During a question-and-answer session, a shouting match erupted between a prominent backer of President Asif Ali Zardari and a supporter of dissident Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry. The dispute, reported later in the Pakistani press, was a snapshot of a country so busy quarreling that it is failing to solve its problems.

The next morning brought fresh evidence of the dangers facing Pakistan. Holbrooke and Mullen met a group of young tribal leaders who had traveled, at great personal risk, from Waziristan and other frontier areas. Some were dressed in the colorful turbans of the frontier; others in Western clothes. If Taliban leaders back home knew they were meeting with Obama's special envoy and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, they could be killed.

"We are all Taliban," one young man said - meaning that people in his region support the cause, if not the terrorist tactics. He explained that the insurgency is spreading in Pakistan, not because of proselytizing by leaders such as Baitullah Mehsud, but because of popular anger. For every militant killed by a US Predator drone, he says, 10 more will join the insurgent cause.

<snip>

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=5&article_id=100895

What's happening in Pakistan is grave. Why? If Pakistan itself falls to the Taliban and other related insurgent groups, the prospects of a large scale war become quite likely. Think India will just sit back? Or the U.S.?

[cali]

1. what is it that makes DUers so uninterested in this?

What's going on now in Pakistan is clearly of great importance.

[K Gardner]

2. You lost me at "OBSAMA". Seriously, tho, to answer your question, I don't

think people are "uninterested". There truly isn't much thought-provoking discourse on this site anymore.. so I wouldn't expect to see an enlightened, civil discussion on this topic (or almost any other). Frontline's piece on the Taliban was terrifying..

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/video/flv/generic.html?s=frol02p4e2&continuous=1

And they're coming out with one this month called "Children of the Taliban", which looks like it is also going to be a AAA documentary. It's a complicated subject, and attacking Obama isn't going to solve it.

[cali]

3. What are you referring to?

I'm certainly not attacking Obama over this. If there was a reference to "Obsama" in one of the articles I posted, I apologize for not reading more closely.

[leftynyc]

9. Right before the google link

I'm sure whoever wrote it thought they were being funny.

[K Gardner]

10. Sorry, Cali, poor wording.. wasn't talking about you, just the general tenor of

this board lately :-)

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. They haven't 'ceded control to the Taliban'

They've implemented Sharia law. There is a difference. Sharia law exists in some states in Nigeria, for instance: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharia_in_Nigeria

I don't like Sharia law, but it'd be better not to misrepresent what's happened.

[KharmaTrain]

5. An Ongoing History...

Pakistan has always been a political and ethnic tinderbox. It is an artificial country...created by the British with little concern for the tribal groups in the region. They and the central government in Karachi and then Islamabad have never had real authority in these regions...truly a wild west. Every so often there is an attempt to enforce some kind of national authority in the border regions and each one fails. In the 80s, the US exploited this situation (see Charlie Wilson's War) by sending money and weapons directly into the region to fight the Soviets. In this region, unity comes from the constant attacks from outsiders...be it the Soviets or even the Islamabad government...and now they view the US as the oppressor.

Just as it is with Somalia and many other international issues, Americans are woefully informed about the cultures and their histories. All we see is filtered through the "how does it affect the US" filter that imposses our "values" on their situations.

The Taliban represent the Pashtun people who dominate that area...the less we understand the tribal associatons the longer we'll be stuck in trying to "nation build" and go after "terrorists" yet have nothing to show for it.

[H2O Man]

6. Nominated.

The policies of the Bush-Cheney administration strengthened -- perhaps to the point of insuring -- that those with anti-American feelings, and rigid, authoritarian policies, would gain power. We are in a position where there really are no good options for President Obama. It is, at this time, at a point where the best we can hope for is that he will attempt to find the "least worst" approach, and work towards reaching a point where a "good" option comes into being.

As a supporter of candidate Obama, since February of last year, I noted that his policy on Afghanistan would be the most important area for progressive/liberal democrats and others on the left to lobby (and protest) on. I think that this obviously applies to Pakistan, as well. I do not believe that Obama has the power/authority to end the military campaign there quickly. But I think we should be advocating that he reduce the military effort to the extent he possibly can, and replace it with a humanitarian effort.

[MadHound]

7. And the US is doing a fine recruiting job for them

Nothing like killing hundreds of innocents with a handful of drone attacks to drive the populace into the waiting arms of the one group that actually fights back against the madness.

Our policy in the region is all wrong, we're involved in a war of ideas with these people. Yet instead of bring better ideas to this fight, we brought our military, which is immediately trumped by any ideology out there, including the Taliban.

Just one more reason we need to get our military the hell out of the region ASAP.

[Bandit]

8. For every person killed by a US drone ten more sign up

That is exactly what Obama and Democrats have said about Bush*'s foreign policy. That he created more terrorists than he eliminated.. I think Obama is wrong on this and we need to get out as quick as possible..

[blondeatlast]

11. It's very sad when just getting a bandage on the wound is major progress.

If we can just stop the area from getting worse it will be a major (but unheralded) accomplishment.

Just another of the messes Obama is left to clean up; the whole area is rotting and the damage is spreading outward.