Is There A Message For Obama In Swat?

When I ventured into Mingora in Pakistan's Swat Valley in 1969 it had just gone from being a princely state to just a normal administrative district of Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province, east of Afghanistan. More recently it has been more or less ceded to the Taliban. Until recently it was still a tourist and honeymooners' destination. That's over. It was Pakistan's most fabled skiing resort. The Taliban burned that down-- along with every school that teaches girls. Once it was a relatively prosperous and well-educated part of Pakistan. Now it's a Taliban hellhole, abandoned by a faltering federal government and under the sway of Shari'a law. Although it's only 100 miles from Islamabad, the Pakistani military has been unable to dislodge the Taliban-- who have killed hundreds of their opponents-- and Pakistan announced a cease fire last week leaving a psychotic local religious leader, Maulana Fazlullah in charge. It would be as if the U.S. government allowed Fred Phelps to run Topeka or James Dobson to take over Colorado Springs. In the Swat Valley, all girls' schools were ordered to close down and when a few refused, they were blown up.

The Taliban and their Chechyan and Arab allies have terrorized the region and, in effect, beaten the Pakistani military, a military the U.S. has poured billions and billions of dollars into. The last free elections saw overwhelming support in Swat for the secular Awami National Party, which sent the Taliban on a murderous rampage, leading to several hundred thousand residents packing up and leaving.

Many Pakistanis greeted the terms of the truce with skepticism. One newspaper, Dawn, said the deal sent a "disastrous signal: fight the state militarily and it will give you what you want and get nothing in return."

Legal experts in Pakistan said the deal would set a precedent for militants to campaign for and win the imposition of Islamic courts elsewhere in Pakistan. The United States, which supports the civilian government of Pakistan's president, Asif Ali Zardari, was cautious in its early reaction.

It's Saturday. I hope you have 12 spare minutes to watch this important new documentary from BraveNewFilms that delves into the catastrophe unfolding in than Pathan homeland (eastern Afghanistan and western Pakistan).



Joseph Galloway suggests we dig out some old Rudyard Kipling verses to help focus our attention on the well-worn road to doom Obama is dragging us down in Afghanistan:

When wounded and left on Afghanistan's plain,
And the women come out to cut up your remains,
Roll to your rifle and blow out your brains,
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.