Nothing is going to change.....#dosomething #peshawarattack Pakistan’s promised fight against Taliban is delusional at best ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ By SUSHANT SAREEN If there is any country that can beat Pakistan in deluding itself, it is India. The only difference is that while Pakistan suffers from delusions about itself, India suffers from delusions about Pakistan reforming itself. After last month’s suicide bomb attack outside the Wagah Parade Area, a section in India had advocated that the time had come for both the countries to fight terrorism together because it was a common threat. Indian Border Security Force (BSF) personnel stand guard at the Wagah India-Pakistan International Border on November 3, 2014, following the suicide bomb attack on the Pakistani side of the Wagah border gate The horrifically evil and barbaric attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar on December 16 has now once again led many in India to convince that Pakistan was going to become a different country from December 17. They believe that Pakistan’s alliance with terrorists would become a thing of the past and henceforth Pakistan would end the specious distinction between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Taliban. The massacre in Peshawar has caused enormous grief, outrage and even introspection in Pakistan. But will this be enough for the Pakistani establishment to effect a paradigm shift in its strategic orientation and objectives? It is all very well for Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to declare that there will be no differentiation between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Taliban any more. But it is still not clear whether Pakistan considers the undisputed leader of Taliban, Mullah Omar, a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ Taliban. Nor is there any clarity on whether Pakistan still wants to bat for the Taliban getting a stake in the government in Kabul. Aside from the fact that those who have become ‘bad’ Taliban today were ‘good’ until yesterday and might again become ‘good’ tomorrow if they decide to play according to rules set by the Pakistani establishment; Pakistan’s biggest problem is that it doesn’t know or hasn’t figured out who its real enemy is. There is utter confusion, and, worse, ambivalence on this issue. Though officially Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and some of its affiliates have been identified as the perpetrators of the Peshawar outrage, circles which function as the unofficial voice have already started pointing the finger towards India. India, therefore, needs to keep its guard up against Pakistan regardless of whether Islamabad fights or flirts with terrorism. The bigger problem is for Pakistan. Today it’s facing the blowback of terrorism in its periphery from its clients of yesterday. Tomorrow it will face a similar blowback from its clients of today that is the ‘good’ terrorists of JuD/LeT. If Pakistan doesn’t act against the JuD today, this outfit will become even more powerful than what the TTP is now. If it acts, then the blowback that would come tomorrow will come today. Since there is always a discount on the future, there is unlikely to be any action against the JuD, which in turn means that terrorism will continue to be exported to India. A similar problem exists with Mullah Omar’s Taliban. If Pakistan junks Omar, it loses all that it has invested in him over the last decade and risks prolonged instability in the entire western borderlands. If it supports Omar, then it not only risks hostility of the Afghans but also Omar and his bunch providing safe havens to their fraternity from Pakistan, TTP. Chances, therefore, are that Mullah Omar will remain a ‘good Taliban’ which in turn means that all the tall talk of fighting the Taliban will remain just that. Peshawar is, therefore, a metaphor for the perdition that is Pakistan. The writer is senior fellow Vivekananda International Foundation, Delhi Read more: dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2882080/Pakistan-aftermath-genuine-sense-anger-against-Islamic-extremism-Pakistan-Peshawar-attack.html#ixzz3MUtPdVMT
Posted on: Sun, 21 Dec 2014 03:02:08 +0000
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