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The bodies of 22 members of a government-sponsored peace committee were found dumped near South Waziristan Wednesday after fighting broke out between the Pakistani Taliban and a rival tribe, government officials said.
The peace committee was attacked by supporters of Baitullah Mehsud, the head of the Pakistani Taliban, in the town of Jandola on Monday, not far from the Afghan border and about 300 kilometers,or 185 miles, west of Peshawar, the capital of the North West Frontier Province.
Some of the 22 bodies were found with bullet wounds, others had been slashed with knives, Marwat said.
The killings come after the Pakistani army reached a cease-fire with Mehsud’s forces earlier this year. It has pulled its soldiers back from Mehsud’s territory in South Waziristan. Under the terms of an accord, the military has exchanged prisoners with Mehsud’s forces.
The movement of Mehsud’s Taliban fighters into Jandola and the killings of the peace committee members from the rival Bhittani tribe are likely to raise questions about the accord between the army and the Taliban.
Like that phrase – “likely to raise questions”?
You have to be out of your fracking mind to place your life on the line for the Pakistan military, government and assorted regional politicians.
1. Why did the Pakistani military agree to a cease fire with these animals?
2. Who in their right mind would be naive enough to believe that these same animals would honor a cease fire?
The Afghan/Pakistan border is completely out of the control of either the governments of Afghanistan or Pakistan. Sending in a peace committee won’t help.
They’ve tried the carrot. Now let’s try the stick: 60 days of continuous carpet bombing of the region. Then see if who-ever’s left wants to make peace.
Pakistan reeks of Taliban. The reason the Taliban still exist is because they have safe haven in Pakistan, with at least a nod if not the blessing of the Government.
http://tinyurl.com/6zlfcs
http://tinyurl.com/5wh9tw
Eventually, no matter how much we want to avoid it, this war on terror is going to be played on Pakistani home soil as well as Iran and Syria.
100 years in the middle east.
Not humor here:
In 2002 in Karachi a whole office of Christian peace workers was murdered execution style. I knew some those guys and they are heroes to me. I will never forget them.
http://tinyurl.com/4mvjd3
>> chuck said,
>> Now let’s try the stick: 60 days of continuous carpet bombing of the region. Then see if who-ever’s left wants to make peace.
Using war to fight terrorism is like throwing garbage to kill cockroaches.
Yes, you kill a few at first but then you create conditions that breed far far more.
>> Ah_Yea said,
>> Eventually, not matter how much we want to avoid it, this war on terror is going to be played on Pakistani home soil as well as Iran and Syria.
And you think we can win those wars?
A war in Pakistan will make Iraq seem like a cake walk.
We cannot, not by ourselves.
It’s up to the Pakistanis to clean their house, and in this case too many cockroaches are holding the brooms. I don’t hold out much hope there.
If we do more useful and meaningful humanitarian aid in Iraq and Afghanistan then that will help moderate Syria and Iran. Iran in particular seems best dealt with through improving America’s image and making Iraq stable.
Using war to fight terrorism is like throwing garbage to kill cockroaches.
Yes, you kill a few at first but then you create conditions that breed far far more.
Got any better ideas for these idiots? Send the money and flowers? Last time we left them alone to fester they created a dark ages of Taliban rule and hosted Bin Laden and his terrorists. Perhaps we should have just left the Nazi’s alone too? We had to bomb the shit out of Germany to get of them.
Sometimes the only option left is extreme violence. That is the ugly reality of life.
But if we could only sit down at the table with these type of people, Iranian leaders included, we could clear up our misunderstandings and have peace. Hope & Change is where it’s at baby!
>> Ron Larson said, on June 27th, 2008 at 11:15 am
>> Last time we left them alone to fester they created a dark ages of Taliban rule and hosted Bin Laden and his terrorists.
Hmmm. That’s an interesting piece of history revisionism. It’s pretty well know that the Taliban was blow-back from the Ronald Reagan’s support of the Mujaheddin.
The only long term solution to radicalism is social development.
I know conservatives wnat to solve every problem with bombs but, in when it comes to fighting terrorism, that just makes things worse.
Yes, development is expensive and often wasteful but wars aren’t cheap, either — especially if it makes things worse.
Blood debt.
#10 “The only long term solution to radicalism is social development.”
Since all these problem areas are just Iron age societies artificially propelled forward by the West we should just quarantine them. Block them off from the outside world until they advance on their own.
>> Patrick said, on June 28th, 2008 at 3:52 am
>> Block them off from the outside world until they advance on their own.
And how, pray tell, would you do that?
Why are Americans so damn resistant to humane solutions? Have we no empathy?
Put yourself in their shoes. Indeed, America is considered “less advanced, stupid, brutal, dangerous, militant” etc. by many (most?) people in the developed world.
America’s unwillingness or inability to control guns has directly led to many deaths in Mexico, Canada and surely beyond.
HOW WOULD YOU FEEL if other navies set up a blockade around America to keep the guns from leaking out? HOW WOULD YOU FEEL if allied armies “carpet bombed” communities with high gun ownership?
One of those Euro bombs landed on your house during a wedding and killed your wife, kids, parents and grandparent or two while you were out getting more ice.
Would that make you feel MORE sympathetic to their demands that we control guns? Or less?
However you would feel, you can be sure that’s how a lot of Iraqis feel about America now.
#13 “Why are Americans so damn resistant to humane solutions? Have we no empathy?”
It is because I have empathy that I feel this should be done. They have been ripped out of the Iron Age (for some the Stone age) and they aren’t culturally advanced enough to deal with the modern world. As a result they slaughter each other in a larger degree because they have access to weapons that they should see for another thousand years. It would be an act of kindness to stip them of technology that was prematurely thrust upon them. They could then advance at their own pace without outside interference.