A new Pakistani Taliban chief emerging?

[Pfpilot]

No, you cannot.

You do not pamper the other beehive, nor turn a blind eye to it, but also do not agitate it such that it turns towards you. You just keep it in check, turn a little lenient towards it for the time it requires to clear the first beehive, and then go all on out on the second one.

You don't make anybody your friend.

The problem, good sir, comes with the volatile nature of these beehives and their ability to turn common citizens into killer bees...hmm, took that analogy too far and completely ruined it...my apologies to whomever came up with it.

But on a serious note, these are organizations that can't be relied upon to lay dormant without causing irreparable damage to Pakistan. The temporary world war 2 compromise between Hitler and Stalin that allowed both to pursue more pressing concerns was possible because, they were organized nations with the conventional capability to wage war and a conventional understanding of the concept of war. The Taliban, whether it is Pakistani or Japanese, cannot be expected to return the Pakistani favor of leaving them be. In reality, they will take advantage of the opportunity to wage more attacks on an unsuspecting Pakistani force.

Most importantly, the impact on the general populace is the issue that needs to be explored further. Extremist organizations prey on the less fortunate, those too weak and poor to make an honest living, and Pakistan's economic failure means millions of young men are susceptible to being driven towards misguided causes. If we let the TTP continue to flourish, we will continue to lose the youth of our nation to them. That, alone, is a risk we cannot afford to take. We, as a nation, are more extremist in our thinking today than we were 20 years ago and the Taliban and more localized cells have flourished off this development. The more people they have, the more of a menace they become. A Pakistan, where a large number of Pakistanis believe in such causes will be the final nail in our coffin. A person can fight an enemy he can differentiate himself from; but the more the line blurs, the more likely it is that we will not win this war.

To use a different analogy, now that I have ruined the beehive one: if a person's house is flooding from an internal leak and flood waters from the local river have drowned the neighbor's house and are on his doorstep; no one would fault the owner for attempting to plug the internal leak first, but if he doesn't do so quickly enough, he will lose his house anyways. We may not claim to have the funding to fight all extremist threats at once, but that is only because a large majority of our war fighting capability resides on the other border. Fight it like a war, invest all resources and capabilities into it and the results will follow. A half baked strategy of limiting extremism, instead of exterminating it is costing us far more in the present than we like to believe and it may end up costing us any chance of a prosperous Pakistani future.

 

[clmeta]

Let me respond to you according to your logic. TTP is Muslim and Muslims can't kill Muslims.

kasab was a hindu, there wont be any action against a hindu execution

TTP is an nato loving group, fazlullah remains for a year hiding in afghanistan, he is there in the safe heavens, attacking pakistan, looks like a strategic asset of NATO and US

 

[notorious_eagle]

Fight it like a war, invest all resources and capabilities into it and the results will follow. A half baked strategy of limiting extremism, instead of exterminating it is costing us far more in the present than we like to believe and it may end up costing us any chance of a prosperous Pakistani future.

Sir

You couldn't be more right about this, BANG ON. For too long we have been fighting this war with kid gloves, we have only used a fraction of our strength. Instead of being proactive and taking the fight to the enemy, we have instead relied on the strategy of building fortifications in anticipation of the enemy attacking us. It does not matter whom the chief is of TTP, a snake will always remain a snake.

I also blame the General Populace for this current impasse. There is still a lot of sympathy for the TTP elements due to American hatred. The line of thinking among the average salim is that PA is a hired gun and fighting the war on behalf of US. That might be true in the beginning, but unfortunately we have reached a point now where this war is Pakistan's war and sooner or later we will be fighting for survival.

 

[nair]

"Tum kitnay Chief maro gai Har madrassay sai chief niklay ga" should be TTP's party naara.

I guess you have a point here.. then may be keeping a tab on those madrassa along with action on TTP will solve the problem to a great extent...

 

[Irfan Baloch]

I also blame the General Populace for this current impasse. There is still a lot of sympathy for the TTP elements due to American hatred. The line of thinking among the average salim is that PA is a hired gun and fighting the war on behalf of US. That might be true in the beginning, but unfortunately we have reached a point now where this war is Pakistan's war and sooner or later we will be fighting for survival.

very true
I also blame our state institutions in failing to "sell our fight to our own people"
our sympathy for Jihadists is based on two reasons

1. enemy of my enemy is my friend
2. radicalization of society over the decades

re line of thinking about hired gun

our most beloved leader Mr Khan time and again says that and so do all those Media Anchors who led the Pak Army hatred sentiment after the Lal masjid operation. PMLn foul mouths like Sher Ali, Saad Rafiqe and Sana ullah etc used to taunt the army on the TV debates" saying that if any army officer has the "gutts" then he should go in uniform in Khuwaza khella or Mehmand.. PMLn has calmed down a lot but in the beginning it almost looked like the mouth piece of TTP calling them our angry brothers.
these are the kind fo people who command the vote bank of a sizeable population in their constituencies. they are still at it and trying to squeeze as much political advantage out of it while they can for the next election.


Imran on the other hand has matured from the Imran of 2008, I must admit I hated him for his unqualified support for taliban and the way he insulted the army. at the beginning in his books fighting the TTP was out of question and even betrayal and treason. he changed that over time and now advocates a scaled down , special ops style operation against the real arseholes and also suggests using the local Tribal militia against them


any army chief no matter how noble, steadfast and loved can fill the shoes of a popular leader. it has to be a political leader who would tell the people that after loosing over 35k people, why enough is enough and why we must stop justifying the attacks on minorities and general population by these sectarian & religious thugs.


===
during one conversation somewhere the Lal Masjid operation came up. General Musharraf was ritually lcursed by one guy for his unprovoked attack on the innocent & defenceless students. I pointed out the killing of a rangers personnel by those "innocent & defenceless students" , before the actual operation (I didnt bother repeating the torching of pulbic & private proerty and abducting & beating up people by the defenceless & innocent students) his response was
are you army ranger yourself? (a typical Pakistani mentality that you would only speak for someone if you are same sect, community or party)

while I was trying my best to prove that I was not an army ranger another person nailed the conversation by declaring that Col Haroon was actually executed by his fellow team members because he was reluctant to take part in the operation & he was actually shot in the back.

I thanked them and walked away. letting them think that I was a Shia/ Ahmedi ranger & American agent.
then I asked myself, why did I even bother myself in that conversation? I answered myself saying that they looked ok to me, respectable, educated and reasonable. then I told myself to be more discrete next time. praise to Prophets and Saints who change the hearts and minds of entire civilizations.

 

[Jango]

Fight it like a war, invest all resources and capabilities into it and the results will follow. A half baked strategy of limiting extremism, instead of exterminating it is costing us far more in the present than we like to believe and it may end up costing us any chance of a prosperous Pakistani future.

There was a retired Air Marshal on TV the other day, and he also advocated that the NA or some other body give full legislative backing to this war, and a proper strategy for this should be established by the civilian apparatus so that it is seen like a full fledged war and not some gung ho military op.

 

[Pfpilot]

Sir

You couldn't be more right about this, BANG ON. For too long we have been fighting this war with kid gloves, we have only used a fraction of our strength. Instead of being proactive and taking the fight to the enemy, we have instead relied on the strategy of building fortifications in anticipation of the enemy attacking us. It does not matter whom the chief is of TTP, a snake will always remain a snake.

I also blame the General Populace for this current impasse. There is still a lot of sympathy for the TTP elements due to American hatred. The line of thinking among the average salim is that PA is a hired gun and fighting the war on behalf of US. That might be true in the beginning, but unfortunately we have reached a point now where this war is Pakistan's war and sooner or later we will be fighting for survival.

That's the biggest issue at this point; the general population has increasingly become supportive of the various extremist elements as Irfan Baloch explained in far more detail than I'm capable of. It is the very reason we need a great amount of urgency moving forward since we cannot afford to let the our culture decay any further. While our leaders have repeatedly thrown the Americans and the war or terror under the bus to garner goodwill for themselves domestically, they have created a perception among the masses that this isn't our war. The worry is, it is so beneficial for the leadership to maintain this status quo, that they may not act at all and sacrifice Pakistan's future for the stability of their seats today. I doubt anyone believes Zardari cares even slightly about Pakistan and shifting blame offshore distracts the people from focussing on his blatantly corrupt and incompetent government. Why would such a man act at all and create another problem for himself in the form of a full scale war? Equally would the military leadership be willing to commit full scale to fighting a less glamorous war that may never bring the kind of accolades our generals prefer from audacious adventures in Kashmir?

There was a retired Air Marshal on TV the other day, and he also advocated that the NA or some other body give full legislative backing to this war, and a proper strategy for this should be established by the civilian apparatus so that it is seen like a full fledged war and not some gung ho military op.

I hope that ends up being the case, since the general public will only back a war effort, if the leadership is selling it as such. The death of so many innocent Pakistanis and brave souls fighting at the Afghani border has proved in a excruciating manner of our general inability to grasp the situation. The common Pakistani has just been unable to appreciate the sacrifices he and those around him have been forced to make. Also, the limited forces and resources devoted to this war effort have been found unequal to the task. The situation is simply too serious and spread over such a difficult terrain that without a more concerted effort, this adversary will continue to feed upon the Pakistani populous and destroy the nation from within.

 

[RabzonKhan]

Sure my detailed analysis will follow but just to give you the taster

-TTP wont shoot on its foot, i.e. it wont do anything that would jepordise its relationship with its "handlers" so its focus will remain against the Pakistani state

-there is no concept of change of leadership apart from death from unnatural causes and concept of dissent is as alien to TTP as the concept of existence of Shias.

-there might have been "small" infightings among some TTP elements but that was quickly rectified by the TTP handlers in order to keep it focused towards its main objective, which is degredation of the state of Pakistan.
-there is no mention of Mullah Fazlullah who is currently a guest in Kunar or Noristan province of Afghanistan.
-just to jog the memory of my fellow readers, recall the video tape of Colonnel Imam under the captivity of “lashker e Jhagvi al Alami” & his eventual execution, this group forms the part of TTP which is coined by analysts across the globe as Punjabi Taliban, who have recently acquired the taste for the Sunni blood as well in addition to murdering over 150k shias for decades. This same group works on the same lines as the BLA does in Balochistan but keeps its focus on (you guessed it) shias, in order to fan the unrest & insecurity. It would be really foolish to bite the hand that feeds it and decide to take on its masters in Afghanistan.
-TTP is able to escape into Afghanistan and sneak back in just because it has willing hosts in Afghanistan. And when the Pakistani forces retaliate & foil their infiltration then we have artillery exchanges with Afghan & NATO forces ( some alliance that).
So in short, pinch of salt may not be enough might as well order a sack of few kg salt.
Without mincing anymore words. TTP solely exists because it has full American backing. Its leadership has time and again said it that its focus is only Pakistan and it considers the people of Pakistan as its enemy as well. And it cant care less about Afghanistan or Americans. We cant let our guard down and hope that these snakes will crawl back to Afghanistan and sting their masters. If such thing ever happens then they will be eliminated and replaced by more obliging leadership

 More later

Irfan Baloch , I'm still waiting for your detailed analysis.