The New York Times reported that President Bush secretly signed an executive order authorizing the American military forces operating in Afghanistan to carry out cross border raids, attack or both if necessary to fight the Taliban.
The question is whether this will help or hurt the fight against terrorism.
Every leading foreign policy expert has to agrees that the new government in Islamabad should get ample time and the resources to map out a new and comprehensive strategy to tackle the problem of terrorism. When Pakistan's Prime Minister Gillani was here in Washington couple of weeks ago, he talked about these and other similar issues at length with the security experts in Bush administration. Yet, President Bush has not revoked the order allowing American forces to attack targets inside Pakistan. At the very least, Mr. Bush should listen and understand the concerns shared with him and his team by the Pakistan government. But it seems that Mr. Bush is determined to follow the path that he, not the experts on the ground, considers right to fight the terrorist threat in Pakistan.
It is obvious that the American and NATO forces, even with the help of Pakistan Army have not succeeded in defeating Taliban. And if the recent history is any guide, we can safely assume that American decision to fight the Taliban inside Pakistan won't solve the problem either. All sides, that is, Washington, Islamabad, Kabul and NATO must reassess their strategy to defeat the Taliban. These people cannot be defeated militarily, a conclusion shared by almost every analyst.
Mr. Bush should also understand that the people of Pakistan are suffering. The inflation is hurting them, the terrible law and order is playing havoc with the lives of ordinary citizens, the economy is not producing jobs for the rapidly growing population, and to add insult to the injury, the lack of electricity, water and other daily necessities across Pakistan is not making the Pakistani population sympathetic to the war against terror. Therefore, if Washington is really and truly serious about overcoming the Taliban, they have to help ordinary people in Pakistan by ensuring that their lives get better.
Washington has given about 10 billion US dollars to Pakistan Army since the tragedy of 9/11, but they have not achieved anything in return, if the goal was to have a Taliban free Pakistan or Afghanistan. But if Washington invests 10 billions in rebuilding the civilian infrastructure in Pakistan, there is not doubt that America will get tremendous return on investment because once the civilians are on board, it will become very easy to defeat the Taliban.
Bilal Qureshi
