October 3, 2010
BECAUSE IT WORKED SO WELL FOR THE BRITS...:
The continuous struggle along Pakistan's frontier (David Ignatius, October 3, 2010, Washington Post)
Pakistan wants to use the 70,000-strong Frontier Corps to stabilize the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, or FATA, and halt the domestic Taliban insurgency. The United States, struggling in Afghanistan, wants Pakistan to help seal the border and destroy the sanctuaries used by al-Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban. The two sides talk as if their goals are identical, but they aren't. The differing priorities became clear in conversations last week with Pakistani commanders.Warsak is a pet project of Maj. Gen. Tariq Khan, the commander of the Frontier Corps. At his headquarters in the ancient Bala Hissar fortress in Peshawar, the traditional garb of the tribal "scouts," as they're called, makes you wonder whether the days of the British Raj ever really ended. Behind Khan's desk is a plaque bearing the names of his predecessors back to 1907.
Khan argues that it's time for Pakistan to move from big military offensives in the tribal areas to what he calls "policing" actions. "No steamroller operations," he says.
Lt. Gen. Asif Yasin Malik, who commands the Pakistani army in the western border areas and is Khan's boss, makes the same point. "Don't expect major new kinetic operations," he says. "We have changed gears to a softer approach."
This can't be comforting to Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan. He is said to have concluded, after several months in Kabul, that more Pakistani pressure on the havens is crucial for American success. That's the basic conflict -- an overstretched America wants a Pakistani surge in the tribal areas; an overstretched Pakistan just wants to keep the peace.
Khan's strategy is an updated version of the old British approach: work through the tribal chiefs, or maliks, keep the roads open and pound any renegades back into line.
We do Pakistan no favors by going along with the delusion that the region is their sovereign territory.
