Sayfullah
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Success in this war isn’t measured by how many enemies or enemy leaders are killed. Success isn’t measured by how much land is liberated.Without local support, getting close to target while armed, well versed in plan, rested and motivated is not easy.
Imagine it’s a one way trip, one last mission, no one would go in half hearted or tired or exhausted.
In this case, TTP said they will attack and they did so army was prepared and on alert. So is this an intel success ? Is this a successful defensive mission ? Does this show that heli QRF is effective ? Does SSG need to be called in every time everywhere ?
Pk mentioned drones and lots of dead TTP - bottom line, PA was prepared.
However consider this, how do you define success of a mission ? Lesser number killed than enemy ? Strategic goals met over long term ? Killing of a leader ? Not taking any damage ? Or just a successful mission which meets its aims ?
What if one lucky shot of RPG had killed 6 soldiers while only two terrorists would be killed and rest ran away ? After all, they didn’t capture any land neither destroyed an important installation like dam, air base, parliament etc.
What are the metrics of success ?
Success in such wars are measured by whose ideology comes on top and who has local support. You could kill 10 ttp for every 1 Pakistani soldier but if their ideology still appeals to people they’ll always be a threat. You could lose 10 soldiers to kill a single ttp but if their ideology is made redundant and doesn’t appeal to locals, you’ll eventually come out on top and permanently win this war.
This is an ideological war. The enemy brought an ideology and tried to sell it to the people. It’s your job to counter their ideology with your ideology and prove to the people their ideology is flawed. The best way to do this is stop messing around with secularism and ethnic nationalism, instead send scholars to prove them as khawarij to the locals and defeat their khawarij ideology by proving their view of “shariah” is against Islam. By promoting secularism or ethnic nationalism you play right into the enemy’s trap and they use shariah to recruit more fighters. This ideological war is not limited to Pakistan nor is it limited to a single ideology. For example, in places like Nangarhar and Kunar you can use the Salafi majority to root out ttp and make them pro pak using Pakistani salafi groups and madressas. In Nuristan you can use their similarity to Chitralis and them being a unique people more in common with people from Chitral to turn them pro pak and anti ttp. Kinda playing the ethnic line in situations like this while also fighting on the religious front. There’s many fault lines that exist in Afghanistan and even Pakistan where ttp is in power. Remember how ttp was cutting each others necks during Fazlullah’s leadership. Agencies goal should be to create that type of situation again. Use your enemies to fight your enemies while destroying their ideology.
Anytime a ttp foot soldier is killed it’s automatically a failure on Pakistans part. It failed to make ttp ideology less appealing to people and foot soldiers joining ttp ranks in Pakistan and Afghanistan shows it.