Pakistan: A sustained, determined fight against militancy required

War on Terror

05 Sep 2008, NewAgeIslam.Com

Pakistan: A sustained, determined fight against militancy required

Missed opportunities   By Huma Yusuf  September 04, 2008   If you hear the Pakistani Army and government officials tell it, the Bajaur operation has been a success: 560 militants are dead, local tribes have been emboldened to raise lashkars against the Taliban, over 300,000 displaced people can return home for Ramzan, and Bajaur has been rescued from its fate as a militant stronghold. The only opportunity missed, say officials, was the capture of Al Qaeda head honcho Ayman al-Zawahiri. Sadly, the real missed opportunity here is not a headline-generating snare: it's the opportunity to have learned from this battle how to win the war against Pakistani militancy.   The weeks-long military operation in Bajaur gave Pakistanis and the authorities a taste of what a sustained, determined fight against militancy might look like. It also emphasised the costs of future initiatives against the Taliban: provision for those civilians displaced by fighting, efficient reconstruction efforts in villages destroyed by bombardment, the ripple effect of a significant northern conflict in terms of the economy and politics. Rather than celebrating the completion of a successful operation, the government and military should be thoughtfully considering how Pakistan and its citizens can prepare better for future military operations in FATA and the northern areas.   The fact that local tribesmen decided to raise lashkars to expel the Taliban from their villages also deserves a measured response. No doubt, there's something reassuring about learning that Pakistanis directly affected by the militant presence would rather not have the militants around. But tribesmen moved to raising private armies are in some way pointing to the inadequacies of the state. Raising a lashkar is the military equivalent of meting out justice before a jirga rather than in the courts. If we've learnt anything from the curse of parallel justice systems, it's that competing infrastructures lead to increased discontent and fragmentation. Encouraging tribal leaders to take security into their own hands despite the presence of the Army is akin to deferring a problem. Militancy may be curtailed today, but a network of private armies will pose another challenge tomorrow.   The most poignant lesson to be learned is that there is no room for political expediency during a fight against militancy. The decision to call for a Ramzan ceasefire has been slammed by both local and international security experts. It is clear that the lull in fighting will allow the Taliban to regroup and coin new strategies to defy the Army. The Taliban have even declared that they will not lay down arms this month. But if Asif Zardari needs a ceasefire to make a smooth transition into his new role as president, it will stand. As such, he has exchanged a genuine blow to Pakistani militancy for the parliamentary backing of religious parties during the Sept 6 election – a missed opportunity indeed.   In the process of engaging the religious parties before Saturday's election, Interior Minister Rehman Malik insisted that the operation in Bajaur was "our war," conducted independently, rather than on the directive of the United States. What he did not say is that by failing to follow through on the fight, we may have squandered our one opportunity to keep the fight against Pakistani militancy part of "our war." The fact is, if we don't convince the world that we can tackle the militant menace, the next US president will take the matter into his own hands.   Senator Barack Obama has already declared that if the Pakistani government does not take sufficient action to deal with the militants, he will condone unilateral military strikes in the northern areas. Meanwhile, Senator John McCain, long described as a warmonger, will do whatever it takes to assure the American public that their security is his top priority. In fact, his surprise weekend decision to appoint Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate is a good indication of how far he will go to keep his conservative base happy. If he is willing to resort to identity politics to secure votes from the Bible Belt and soccer moms, he won't think twice about bombing Pakistan's northern areas to appease jumpy Republicans. In this context, it was hardly strategic to miss the opportunity to reassure the world that we're capable of following through and dealing with militancy in our backyard even at a time of political drama.   Sadly, we've also passed on a chance to take full advantage of the non-military aid the US is willing to dish out to curtail the Taliban. Senators Obama and Biden are pushing for 7.5 billion dollars in developmental aid to Pakistan over five years. In November last year, McCain suggested that one option for tackling the militant threat would be to get children out of extremist seminaries and into secular schools. In the wake of our first major offensive against the Taliban, we should be carefully analysing how such non-military aid might one day be deployed. Well-founded recommendations made now might actually shape the next president's aid dispensation policy. Indeed, some of the questions the authorities should be asking right now include: how do we build an infrastructure that protects displaced people? What factors differentiated those villages that united against the Taliban from those that sheltered militants? How best can villages destroyed during military-militant fighting be rehabilitated?   Until the powers that be prove willing to shelf political expediency in favour of helping ordinary people in the northern areas and beyond, Pakistan will exhaust itself taking one step forward, only to take two steps back.   The writer is an analyst who recently graduated from MIT's Comparative Media Studies programme. She was previously features editor at an English monthly. Email: huma.yusuf@gmail.com   View source article: http://thenews.jang.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=133668