Embroiled in political crises, Pakistan is high on the roster for Western armed intervention, writes Mustafa Qadri* The US has thrown down the gauntlet to Pakistan. After days of speculation it finally admitted to what may be its first ground operation in Pakistan. According to eyewitnesses from Angoor Adda, the village in south Waziristan that was attacked, 15 to 20 civilians, mostly women and children, were killed. The attack occurred less than a week into a ceasefire brokered between the Pakistan government and militants in honour of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Such civilian casualties are occurring with alarming regularity as the US and NATO step up their attacks on north and south Waziristan, the small provinces near the Afghan border believed to be a sanctuary for the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. Although Pakistan has also been conducting attacks in Waziristan, the US ground assault was not coordinated with Islamabad. The presumption underlying the US attacks is that the risk of civilian casualties is outweighed by the capture or elimination of high value targets. In this respect, the US strategy, which dominates military operations in the region, has not changed since 11 September 2001. There is a belief in the Pentagon that the removal of individual leaders will win the battle against Muslim extremists and reduce the likelihood of attacks in the West. To be sure, hardcore elements of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda cannot be negotiated with. Their vision of Islam is antithetical to modern society. But even if unilateral strikes manage to eliminate key Al-Qaeda or Taliban figures, the political capital lost from the civilian casualties, apart from potentially constituting war crimes, largely outweigh the tactical gains. The murder of civilians raises the ire of ordinary people in Waziristan and throughout Pakistan. "A Paktun [the dominant ethnic group in areas where the Taliban and Al-Qaeda operate] never forgets who murdered his brother," says Sehlab Mahsud, a veteran journalist from Waziristan. The US has killed many civilians since its invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. It stands accused by the UN of killing up to 90 civilians in Nawabdad. Compounding matters is the fact that no major Al-Qaeda or Taliban leader was captured or killed during the Angoor Adda raid. The string of casualties come at a time when the Taliban is not popular in the areas it influences. A poll conducted in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) by the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) in Pakistan found that 94 per cent oppose militancy and want their daughters to be educated. A further 86 per cent believe the destruction of music shops "was not fair" and 84 per cent do not consider religious-political parties their true representatives. The CRSS study also notes that 90 per cent of the FATA population lives on less than $2 a day while hospitals and schools are almost non-existent and adult literacy hovers around 17 per cent. "A small percentage, maybe one per cent, holds the rest of the population [of Waziristan] hostage," says Farrukh Salim, director of the CRSS. But this small group has the resources and resolve to control what is in essence a desperately poor, tribal society that has been neglected by successive governments from the British Raj to Pakistan. Unilateral strikes by foreign troops will exacerbate the resentment Waziris already feel towards Pakistan. Not only is Pakistan unable to develop their lands (the sentiment goes), it's powerless to prevent foreign armies from invading their homes. Afghanistan, the US and NATO feel that Pakistan is not doing enough to quell the extremist insurrection in the North-West Frontier Province. This view is fuelled by the fact that the militancy continues while Pakistan's politicians seem more interested in criticising foreign interventions. While both houses of Pakistan's parliament heard speech after speech condemning the US ground attack in last Thursday's sessions, it was left to senator and Pashtun nationalist Abdul-Rahim Mandokhel to mention that Pakistan has for years been infiltrated by Chechen, Uzbek and Arab jihadis. Yet eradicating extremism is in Pakistan's interests too. According to the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies, the country has faced 81 suicide attacks since 2001, of which 48 occurred in 2007 alone. More than 3,000 civilians and 1,080 Pakistan army soldiers have been killed in the conflict since 2003. Last Wednesday, Pakistan's prime minister escaped an assassination attempt when his car was fired upon while travelling to pick him up. Amid the chaos, US and NATO strikes in Waziristan prove that they, at least, will not wait for Islamabad to get its house in order. Now, more than ever, Pakistan needs to show leadership in the war against militant extremists. * The writer is an Australian journalist based in Pakistan.
