HindustanTimes.com
Tuesday, April 6, 2004
US gives ultimatum to Pakistan to destroy Taliban
Agence France-Presse Washington, April 6
US-led forces in Afghanistan will move into Pakistani territory to destroy Taliban and other extremist groups if Islamabad is unable to do so, the top US envoy in Afghanistan has warned the Pakistan Government on Monday.
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This US bluster is a sign of desperation, veiled, according to American custom, by tough words.
The US has failed to 'destroy the Taliban'. Now it attempts to pressure its troubled ally Musharraf to accomplish what it has so far not been able to do.
Yet the Pakistani military is also unable to control the situation, depending upon deadly but useless displays of firepower to prove its loyalty to Washington as Asia Time's Pepe Escobar describes --
The al-Zawahiri fiasco By Pepe Escobar
It featured all the trappings of a glorified video game. Thousands of Pakistani army and paramilitary troops played the hammer. Hundreds of US troops and Special Forces, plus the elite commando 121, were ready to play the anvil across the border in Afghanistan. What was supposed to be smashed in between was "high-value target" Ayman al-Zawahiri, as Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf enthusiastically bragged - with no hard evidence - to an eager CNN last Thursday. But what happened to this gigantic piece of psy-ops? Nothing. And for a very simple reason: al-Qaeda's brain and Osama bin Laden's deputy was never there in the first place. And even if he was, as Taliban-connected sources in Peshawar told Asia Times Online, he would choose to die as a martyr rather than be captured and paraded as a US trophy.
It now appears that world public opinion fell victim to a Musharraf-inspired web of disinformation. In the early stages of the battle west of Wana in South Waziristan, Taliban spokesman Abdul Samad, speaking by satellite telephone from Kandahar province in Afghanistan, was quick to say that talk of al-Zawahiri being cornered was "just propaganda by the US coalition and by the Pakistani army to weaken Taliban morale". Subsequently, Peshawar sources were quoting al-Qaeda operatives from inside Saudi Arabia as saying that both bin Laden and al-Zawahiri had left this part of the tribal areas as early as January.
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full at -
<http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/FC24Df05.html>
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Musharraf's moves, on the orders of Washington, against the so-called 'tribal areas' in search of al Qaeda and Taliban to destroy -- which only succeeded in destroying villagers -- is probably the final nail in the coffin of his government which has only made more enemies.
So, the US faces the clear potential for a run-away conflict in Iraq and a continuing guerilla war in Afghanistan -- meanwhile, it's allies face increased terrorist action. It's tempting to compare all this to Vietnam but I believe that to be off-target.
These events are much larger in long term implications.
DRM