Taliban Declare War On Pakistan

They may not have used those precise words, but their threat to Pakistanis to flee cities, followed by multiple explosions all over the country, following still more deadly blasts in the past two days, and there's little else can call it but an all-out war between the Taliban and Pakistan.

Three bombs detonated in Peshawar, north of Pakistan’s capital, and one in Dera Ismail Khan, in the country’s troubled west, killing at least 11 people and wounding dozens.

The strikes were deadly reminders of the potency of militants in Pakistan, a nuclear-armed American ally that is fighting a war against the Taliban in its north and west. Pakistan is central to American policy in this region, as militants in its lawless tribal areas cross the border into Afghanistan, where the United States is fighting a similar insurgency.

Hakimullah Mehsud, a young Taliban commander and lieutenant of Baitullah Mehsud, the chief of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, told the Pakistani newspaper Dawn that more attacks would follow the one in Lahore. Hakimullah Mehsud, who spoke from an undisclosed location, claimed responsibility for the Lahore bombing.

“We want the people of Lahore, Rawalpindi, Islamabad and Multan to leave those cities, as we plan major attacks against government facilities in coming days and weeks,” he said in a phone call to Reuters.

He said that the Lahore attack was a response to Pakistan’s recent military campaign against the Taliban in Swat, an area north of the capital, which was overrun by militants earlier this year.

“We have been looking for a target from the day the military launched the operation in Swat,” Mr. Mehsud said.

The real question isn't whether the Pakistani government can stop the Taliban. It's whether the Pakistani people will continue to tolerate the carnage and rise up against the Taliban themselves (akin the to the Anbar Awakening). Pakistan's governments have played a delicate dance between appeasement and crackdown, and right now, they are paying dearly for that cycle of violence.

The government continues fighting the Taliban in Swat, and the Taliban's latest grievances are that the Pakistanis are trying to defend themselves outside of the frontier provinces, which the Pakistani governments have treated as semi-autonomous for much of Pakistan's history. It has been a major mistake on their part to do so, as the Taliban have used their control to spread the Islamist doctrine and their control now runs into Pakistan proper like tentacles of a hydra.

The Taliban aren't going to stop until they are stopped. That threatens not only Pakistan, but Afghanistan and the rest of South Asia, including India. Putting out a list of most wanted Taliban is a meager start, but until the regular army gets in the game and seeks to impose Pakistani control over all of Pakistan up to the Afghan border, this war will continue.