Pakistani politicians continue to blame U.S. airstrikes against Taliban and al Qaeda camps in the lawless tribal areas for alienating the public, but refuse to address their own problems in conducting counterinsurgency operations. The latest objection to U.S. military airstrikes comes from President Asif Ali Zardari and Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi during a meeting with Secretary of State Rice. Qureshi's comments are particularly interesting.
"These drone attacks are unproductive, and they are contributing to alienation as opposed to winning people over," Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said in an interview Wednesday night.
Qureshi spoke after briefing Pakistani journalists on what he described as Zardari's 20-minute meeting with Rice and another private gathering between Zardari, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia...
"And there is a collateral damage which we must avoid," Qureshi recounted, referring to U.S. strikes that have inadvertently killed civilians. "In fact, what is required is more sharing of intelligence information. What is required is building Pakistan's capacity to deal with insurgency."
The United States has been conducting strikes in North and South Waziristan because intelligence strongly believes al Qaeda's next attack on the west will originate from there. Al Qaeda and the Taliban have scores of camps in the region, which crank out suicide bombers as well as fighters for Afghanistan. The Pakistani military said it has no intention of going into the Waziristans. The Army has taken a serious beating each time it tried.
But most interestingly are Qureshi's comments about the U.S. strikes alienating the Pakistani population. Perhaps he should look into how his own military is fighting in the Taliban stronghold of Bajaur. As the Washington Post reported this week, the Army is coercing the tribes to fight the Taliban, and bombs their villages if they won't. The military is over relying on artillery and airstrikes to attack the Taliban inside towns. Entire towns have been reduced to rubble. These actions alienate the Pakistanis living in the tribal areas far more than any U.S. airstrike.
The Pakistani military has been fighting in the tribal areas on and off for seven years since the Sept. 11 attacks. Yet they refuse to learn the hard lessons of counterinsurgency. The U.S. would not be forced to hit al Qaeda havens if Pakistan would get its act together and take the Taliban insurgency seriously.
