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Originally Posted by Chanur A big part of the problem is much of the populous does not want to kill what is essentially their own people. So they have in the past been having trouble. |
/shrug. Every Pakistani I know, and the majority in polls, don't consider Pashtunis their own people and are perfectly fine with the Pakistani army invading/killing the Pashtun tribes. IMO the bigger problem is that the Pakistanis don't want to commit any resources to doing so, because they are focused on India instead.
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Originally Posted by Cathan I hope the Pakistani government pulls through this and our relations with that government hold up. Last thing we need is chaos surrounding nukes. |
I can understand why you say this, but personally I hope Musharraf doesn't last. There won't be any chance at democracy in Pakistan as long as he's in power. If you're worried that islamist groups will take over, that seems highly unlikely. Outside of the NWFP, no islamist party enjoys any kind of broad support. The biggest religious parties (not even Islamist, mind you, but religious) don't even bring in 10% of the vote in Pakistan as a whole. People got the chance to live in an islamist paradise under General Zia ul-Haqq and aren't eager to repeat the experience.
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Originally Posted by Tuco How pissed are the Taliban at India? |
They're not. As it stands, the Taliban haven't made any move, or even any comments, against India. In the past, Pakistan has tried to convince them that India is a pagan nation colluding with the Zionists, but Taliban didn't buy it. Since they don't consider India to be a decadent, colonialist, zionist regime, they don't have an interest in fighting the Indians. On a larger scale, India actually has surprisingly good relations with militant Islamists outside of Pakistan (particularly Iran).
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Originally Posted by Snugglebear I think there's less chance of a stalemate because a ceasefire/peace deal was already attempted in the Swat valley. Pakistan agreed to Sharia law in Swat in exchange for peace, but the Taliban expanded out of Swat and began overtaking other settlements. Now maybe Pakistan (and its army) will realize that peace is not an option and lose some sympathy for the Taliban's cause. |
The Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP) has always been a farily autonomous region. The Pashtunis are a different ethnicity from Pakistanis (they're Afghans), don't speak the same language, and are considered by the Pakistanis as religious radicals, backwards, and barbarians. Many people there want to secede and form their own country ("Pashtunistan"). Outside of the NWFP, Pakistanis don't have much sympathy for the Taliban. Of course they have their homegrown terrorist groups that they do like...
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Originally Posted by Snugglebear The excuse is always that Pakistan's army is designed to fight India, not fight extremists. You see this crazy shit where the army sits in bunkers or stays out of the way, despite outnumbering Taleban forces 5 to 1 or more. I don't know if it's because the army doesn't want to kill civilians or the army has too many elements that are sympathetic to the extremists or the army just wants to make the civilian leadership look powerless. |
There is no civilian leadership in Pakistan. General Musharraf is dictator and still quite popular with the army. The main reason he doesn't want to fight them is because he knows it will be a Chechnya type of situation for him. Furthermore, fighting a geurilla war on the enemies home turf will tie up huge resources, is hard to do, and will likely make the Pakistanis look weak and incompetent to India.
Keep in mind, also, that the regular Pakistani army doesn't really have anything to do with fighting in the NWFP. That's all delegated to the "Frontier Corps". The FC is mostly recruited from tribal areas and aren't given much in the way of support or weapons (I don't personally know what they carry, but I recall seeing an article which described it as "sandals and WWII era bolt-action rifles). They basically police the region against not only terrorists, but also the drug trade, illegal immigration, etc. However, up until a couple of years ago, they managed to keep the Taliban contained, so nobody really gave a shit.
