The consequences of sanctuaries

Wall Street Journal:

A suspected U.S. missile strike^[1] killed more than two dozen Taliban militants in Pakistan, while separately authorities announced they will impose Islamic law across a wide swath of the northwest as part of a peace deal with one of the group's factions.
...[omit 3 paragraphs]...
The decision by the North West Frontier Province to enact Islamic law, known as shariah, in the Malakand region means yielding to a major demand of the Taliban fighting in Swat.

The move came after peace talks with Sufi Mohammed, a Taliban spiritual leader, said Amir Haider Khan Hoti, the province's chief minister.

He played down the change, saying it only meant enforcing existing laws and added that the 12,000 soldiers who have been fighting in Swat would now go on “reactive mode.”
...
The Taliban already holds sway over much of the region and has imposed Islamic law in the areas it controls.  It has begun reshaping life, shuttering or destroying schools for girls, pressing women to remain indoors and forcing men to grow beards, and closing movie theaters and CD stores.  It has beheaded those caught violating its strict code.

So what we have here is Pakistan’s government effectively admitting that is has no authority in the Swat Valley region, which lies adjacent to, but is not part of, the “semi-autonomous tribal areas” where Talaban/Al Quada activity has been a problem in the past.  Now the cancer of shariah, with its mysogyny and atrocities, spreads to another part of that world.  Shades of 2000!

And yet another “success” of the Bush administration’s policy of tiptoeing around the sensibilities of the Pakistanis in particular (and the Muslims in general) by permitting Islamist sanctuaries to continue to exist within Pakistan’s territory.

Leaving the question for President Obama: Will it be “deal with ’em now,” or “deal with ’em later:”  Will you take action to suppress the spreading Taliban influence (despite Pakistan’s feigned(?) protests), or wait until the next group of Taliban-trained terrorists comes out of the ’stans?


Elsewhere:

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Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 18:13:54 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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