Whats the view about the locals of those areas ? The most affected - the Pashtun belt ?
I ask this because my Dad visited Hayatabad a few weeks ago & no matter who he talked to (University Professors to the Cab Driver) - People were ardently Anti-Army/FC & sympathizing with the Taliban.
I've got a 90 something Bajauri Tribal as a friend here in Lahore (owns a shop in the market near my place) & he & the other Pashtuns who visit his shop are convinced that the Establishment is doing this deliberately to find a cause to go into North Waziristan, to prolong this war further & mint more American dollars.
I think there are many Punjabis in these areas who parallel those thoughts...perhaps more so than the Pashtuns but what surprised me so much is that 'the Pashtun belt' is the most affected...by far the most affected area. No one has given greater sacrifices for Pakistan & Pakistan's War on Terror, in the past 10 years, than the people of KPK & FATA have & yet there appears to be an impression that the FC, the Army, the Tribal Lashkars - all of whom are predominantly Pashtun - are sellouts fighting a mercenary war & that the TTP are in the 'right' ! I could understand a Punjabi or a Sindhi being hundreds of Kms away from the front-line being fooled by the 'religious nutjobs' but how could someone right there in the midst of all of this accept such a narrative ?
And I do apologize if I offended you in any way by explicitly mentioning the 'Pashtuns' ! I have nothing but love & admiration for the Pashtun race & I am unequivocally certain that Pakistani Pashtuns have given the most sacrifices for this country above & beyond what their country had a right to ask of them; whether in '48 or in the past 10 years.
I just find it perplexing that those who're dying & fighting on the front-line too would be deluded into believing that the boys who are being butchered for their safety by the TTP are the 'real enemy'.