Pakistan's Appeasement Deal Falling Apart

The Taliban can see that they're gaining and that there's no reason for them to continue abiding by the deal with the Pakistani government. If that deal falls apart, the Sharif government will have nothing to show for their efforts, and will have to admit that their appeasement failed miserably.

It would also mean that the Islamists will have gained a serious foothold in Pakistani territory and that the government has no answers to stop the Taliban advance.

Muslim Khan, the spokesman for Swat Taliban leader Mullah Fazlullah, said the peace agreement "practically stands dissolved" as the military is attacking Taliban forces throughout the Malakand Division.

The government signed the Malakand Accord with Taliban front man Sufi Mohammed on February 16. The peace agreement called for the end of military operations in Swat, the end of Taliban operations, and the imposition of sharia, or Islamic law, in the districts of Malakand, Swat, Shangla, Buner, Dir, Chitral, and Kohistan, a region that encompasses nearly one-third of the Northwest Frontier Province.

"Our peace agreement with the NWFP government practically stands dissolved," Khan told The News. "Forces are attacking us and our fighters are also retaliating" against Pakistani security forces and government officials.

"If the Awami National Party [the ruling, secular Pashtun party in the Northwest Frontier Province] supports us, we will not harm them," Khan said. "But if they sided with the government, they too will become our target."

Khan said the Taliban would focus on Pakistan's federal government and the military because they are carrying out the policy of the United States. "However, our main target will be security forces and the rulers of Pakistan," he noted. "We will also act in other cities of Pakistan but will not target the general public."

Amir Izzat Khan, the spokesman for Sufi Mohammad, the leader of the banned pro-Taliban Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammed [TNSM or the Movement for the Enforcement of Mohammed's Law] and father-in-law of Swat Taliban leader Mullah Fazlullah, told The News that the peace agreement is still intact but it would end if the military operations in neighboring Dir and Buner continued.

Once again, we see how the Taliban are dictating the terms here - instead of the Pakistani government. The Islamists and Taliban are busy warning that the deal will fall apart if the government doesn't stop going after the Taliban advancing throughout the frontier provinces and towards Islamabad, particularly in Dir and Buner.

No, this deal is falling apart because the Taliban's need for the deal is no longer present. They're accomplishing what they set out to do, and the Pakistani government is not in a position to do anything about it.

There are good reasons why the US is gravely concerned about the situation in Pakistan. The Pakistani nuclear arsenal may still be secure for the moment, but there's no telling how long that will last. The government isn't doing a good job holding off the Taliban, and the military still hasn't thrown its full weight into going after the Taliban in the frontier provinces despite the existential threat posed by the Islamists.

Adm. Mike Mullen, who visited Pakistan and Afghanistan last week, added that while fighting continues in Iraq, and the U.S. remains committed to the mission, "the main effort in our strategic focus from a military perspective must now shift to Afghanistan."

Mullen told reporters at the Pentagon Monday that the Taliban, aided by Al Qaeda, are "recruiting through intimidation, controlling through fear and advancing an unwelcome ideology through thuggery."

"The consequences of their success directly threaten our national interests in the region and our safety here at home," Mullen said.

Mullen was speaking ahead of a joint meeting in Washington, D.C., this week with President Obama, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Afghan President Hamid Karzai to discuss economic, political and security benchmarks for ousting militant forces from the region.

Mullen expressed concern that the political leadership and military leadership in Pakistan are working at cross-purposes. Taliban operatives have moved through the Swat Valley, which Pakistan's government essentially ceded to the fundamentalists last month in hopes of batting down additional confrontations.

However, Monday morning, the mayor of Methar Lam City, north of Jalalabad, Afghanistan, was assassinated, and militant forces continue to expand their area of control throughout the border region.

The cross purposes is the mixed messages sent by the Pakistani government- appeasement on the one hand, which only encourages the Taliban to further violence because they see the benefits of doing so. The Taliban continue gaining territory and the recalcitrant Sharif government is incapable of defending Pakistan's national interests in maintaining control and sovereignty over all of Pakistan.

It has all but ceded control of the Pastun regions to the Taliban. However, the Taliban aren't satisfied with just controlling those regions, but see bigger prizes on the horizon.