He has a legit question. Situation in NW (as far as TTP fleeing into Afghanistan is concerned) has not changed. This was an inevitability then, it is an inevitability now. Had the Army taken action then, it was perhaps better than now, when the terrorists are stronger than ever. We are admitting that they cant be stopped from fleeing into Afghanistan but we should take the ground from them, raise a local FC and dig into the area. The same could have been done when NATO/ISAF asked us to cooperate with them. Our international image would have been better and we were not so much isolated and alienated as we are today. We are doing exactly what NATO/ISAF wanted us to do, but we are doing it when the NATO/ISAF are packing up, and we will get little to nothing in support of this operation from them. This is what we call in Urdu, so (100) pyaz and so (100) durray.
India said the same thing last year when taliban opened an office in Qatar, we had a huge thread for that too. Why support peace talks with them?
Yes,they had opened office in 2012.Why kill them if they can lay arm by talk ??That was the thought behind engaging them in talks.Don't compare it with your case where Taliban were classified as Good and Bad Taliban.
Yes, you are right. I am not arguing on the point made by you. All I am saying is, had we had done the operation then, when NATO/ISAF were asking us to do, our international image would have been lot better than it is today. We would be in a position to say, well, we did our job but NATO/ISAF are not confronting with the terrorists on their side. At least, we could have sold (to international community) our operation in return of military hardware etc. Now we are doing the inevitable, but cant hope to have international community supporting us, since they don't have their stakes in, at least not like before when they had physical presence in Afghanistan.
Looks like we are not on the same page, you are not getting me or I am not getting you. They asked us to go alone or not, this is not the point. The point is, we should have gone into NW when international community urged us to do that. In that way, we would have at least some international support.
Look, as much as I disagree with IK, he HAS said that he would support a military offensive if it came down to it. He supports peace talks, but now that the talks are dead and the government has gotten the excuse that it was looking for, even IK will fully support the coming offensive.
