Taliban deliver hammer blow to NATO

[xchrom]

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/MG14Df02.html

Spin masters from Washington to Brussels to Kabul are bound for many a sleepless night. World public opinion has been relentlessly shocked and awed by the chimera that the United States and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) are "winning" the AfPak combo war.

Now for the facts on the ground. Immediately after the US government decided to "suspend" US$800 million in aid to the Pakistan army, Pakistan Defense Minister Ahmed Mukhtar told local Express TV channel, "If at all things become difficult, we will just get all our forces back" - hinting there would be no more


troops from Islamabad fighting Pashtun-majority guerrillas in the tribal areas.

Mukhtar couldn't have been more explicit; "If Americans refuse to give us money, then okay ... We cannot afford to keep the military out in the mountains for such a long period."

This graphically shows, once again, the Pakistani army is - reluctantly - playing Washington's counter-terrorism/counter-insurgency game in the tribal areas. As much as Islamabad may fear Pashtun nationalism, the army knows it must proceed with extreme caution, otherwise it will face a mass tribal Pashtun rebellion that would put on the table the supreme taboo; the consolidation of Pashtunistan, breaking up Pakistan as we know it.

[gratuitous]

1. No, no, get with the program

We have to keep pouring money and military into Afghanistan. Don't worry about the horse bein' blind boys, just load the wagon!

Now you made me get all John Madden on you. Shape up or I'll bring out the Lou Holtz, and nobody wants to hear that.

[xchrom]

2. it's true. i am not sufficiently terrified. nt

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. Slightly confusingly, the 'hammer blow' is the killing of Karzai's half brother, not the Pakistan

excerpt, which is just the opening subject of the column.