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I can’t figure out how to embed it, but the New York Times made an incredibly moving video about what it’s like to live in Swat under the rule of the Taliban. The barbarism on display is repugnant: dead bodies in the streets as a warning against dissent; radios barking orders prohibiting girl’s education; storekeepers intimidated from selling products to women. Please watch the entire 14 minute video.
The idea that the Taliban will stop at Swat flies in the face of Taliban irredentism since its inception in Pakistan a few short years ago. With Pakistani and Afghan officials in Washington to talk about their future cooperation with the Obama administration, it’s important to see Swat as a prologue for what the Taliban wish to do to a nuclear-armed country.
Crossposted to The Streak.
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How do you explain the Bush administration taking their eyes off the Taliban once they had them on the run at the end of 2001 and in to 2002. The folks that I was and continue to be in touch with in Afghanistan were so confused by this in late 2002…the U.S. backed off.
My friends father a retired Brigadier General in Afghanistan said “does the U.S. want to lose in Afghanistan”
Just think how much more efficient the Taliban could be at destroying Buddist relics, with some A-bombs in their hands.
Pakistan military more worried about India than domestic upheaval. Pakistan government more worried about Pakistan military than Taliban. Tabliban not worried about anything except gaining rigid control in both Afghanistan and Pakistan (at least the west, but probably all).
Russia, China, India and the US, sitting in a tree, silent as birds hiding from hawks.
They probably wouldn’t want most of the nuke warheads or the missiles that they ride on. Likely that they would sell them to their friends.