The recent attack by Taliban forces at Pakistan’s military headquarters is an ominous sign. The Obama Administration has declared the war in Afghanistan to be of vital importance in the U.S. War on Terror.
Pakistan is a long term ally which borders Afghanistan and is experiencing insurgent activity in its Northwest Provinces and other areas of the country. The ethnic Pashtuns who live in Pakistan are believed to be sympathetic to their relatives across the border in Afghanistan who make up the majority of the Taliban fighters. Pakistan’s northwest border provinces are believed to be the hiding places of Osama Bin Ladin and the ousted leader of the Taliban government leader Mullah Omar.
When Pakistani Taliban fighters penetrated military headquarters and held personnel hostage, they shocked the nation. The military headquarters is in Punjab Province, an area heretofore inhospitable to the Taliban, dampened the success the Pakistani Army achieved in its offensive in the Swat Valley. The psychological effect is similar to the shock felt by Americans when the Tet Offensive of the Viet Cong in 1968 penetrated the American Embassy in Saigon. The Pakistani Army retook its headquarters and freed most of the hostages, but the question lingered, “If the army can not protect its headquarters, how will it protect the general population?
The army was recently talking about a new offensive in the Northwest Province against Taliban and foreign fighter strongholds, yet the Pakistani Taliban’s ability to strike in various areas of the country show that it is very robust. As President Obama ponders a strategy to defeat the highly active Afghani Taliban, he has even more worries over Pakistan. If Pakistan implodes and becomes ungovernable, the whole U.S. military strategy for the regions will fail with terrible consequences since Pakistan is a nuclear power.
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