Catch-22

Cyril Almeida, writing in Dawn, brings Pakistan’s Taliban dilemma in to sharp relief and considers an unpopular ‘Alexandrian solution’:

“The Pakistani landscape is increasingly a frightening one: the frankenstein of militant Islam is on the prowl inside the country; the state has frozen as its monopoly on violence has been shattered; the rabid, Islamist Gul and his cohorts are out to finish the job that Zia began; and a frightened, clueless political elite is wringing its hands.

…

“Counter-insurgencies, we are told, are best fought by some combination of paramilitary and police forces in coordination with political and administrative officials. By all accounts, these forces are not up to the task here. When the Frontier Constabulary rolls into town or the first police checkpoint is set up, the militants melt away, only to return later to wage a sophisticated war of attrition that frightens our troops and saps morale.

“Meanwhile, the politicians are abdicating their duties. The ANP has become a peacemonger, desperately avoiding decisiveness because it is divisive. The People’s Party is fighting an internal war without an interior minister… Nawaz is obsessed with the judges and his right-wing proclivities lead him to spout woolly talk of Islam and peace. Which leaves the army. In Rumsfeld-speak, there are a few known unknowns and other unknown unknowns here. The army high command acquiesced to the civilians’ demand that the government negotiate with militants, but the generals’ reasons for doing so are not known. Some believe that the army needed a breather.

…

“So if no one is going to — or can — do anything about it, then let the bumbling Americans go in and put a new kind of fear of God into the militants.”