This war with the extremists is brutal and only exasperated by failure of the Pakistani establishment to see it as such and divert any and all resources to the Western front. The Indian threat is nonexistent. On the other hand terrorists are practically begging for a fight by attacking military establishments in the heart of Pakistan. Pakistanis are so shocked because many still seem convinced that we are merely and reluctantly supporting an American war that would otherwise magically end at the Pak-Afghan border. That is not only far from the truth, it tries to cover up the death and destruction that is taking place in Pakistan as the random acts of a crazy few; all the while the enemy is far better organized and understands who it is waging a war against.
At the same time it is of upmost importance for non-Pakistanis to realize the enormous task that is to fight a war on one's own soil and against one's own people. How is a soldier supposed to differentiate between a civilian and a terrorist when both look alike, speak alike, and act alike. It is not uncommon in Pakistan to have a gun and a guy merely walking by the base checkpoint could turn around, pull out a hidden gun and open fire and the guards would never see it coming. These people don't look like stereotypical extremists seen in Hollywood, they are simply 'us', roaming the streets as normal civilians till the time comes to make their move. The Americans can shoot two Iraqis out of suspicion and one or both could be innocent civilians, but the risk is justified and backlash nonexistent; the same is true for Israel with Palestinians and for that matter, for India with illegal border crossing. Pakistanis cannot use the same approach, every innocent person maimed or killed becomes another addition to the cause of extremist; providing them with another vivid example of death to sway future extremists with; to seek revenge for and to show how the real enemy is the Pakistani establishment. That is to say nothing of the loss for a Pakistani family who would loose an innocent son at the hands of the Pakistani army; try justifying to them that the deceased seemed dangerous or was caught in the crossfire and see how that comes across to the family.
The double edged sword that we are dealing with, leaves little room for error and it requires us to bite the bullet and go all out in this fight. Ripping the scab off the wound in one go maybe painful, but to pick at its peripheries and hope the problem will take care of itself requires the time the Pakistani state doesn't have.
@PFpilot.
Sir, you seem to have put a finger on the nub of the problem.
The problem or
threat from internal elements or forces is as great as if not greater than elements or forces from without.
You have said that the (present) threat from India is nonexistent.
Let me try to be provocative; play the Devil's Advocate (or should it be Devil's Prosecutor?!) and say that:
India is a threat, was a threat and will remain a threat. But today India seems to be in a position to be a threat without doing much or even anything at all. To borrow a phrase from yester-years (which was used in a different context)- India is waging a
"sitzkrieg".
WHY??
Because India does NOT need to do very much. Neither will India want to do much.
On the contrary, India has understood the dire need to grow as a society, as an economy; but with a very long way to go. I hope some of the discussants here are able to understand that before jumping to any conclusions.
Which can only remind one of a panic-stricken soldier letting loose his weapon in all directions. While thinking that he is fighting a war.
The attacks that have taken place in the past, i.e. GHQ, PNS Mehran, various Security Estt. as well as this one clearly indicate local involvement in facilitation and execution. And that factor does not seem to have been clearly understood or exposed in the investigations/inquiries that have been undertaken so far. That is really worrisome.
Exposing internal threats is much more difficult than identifying and exposing external ones. The reason is (as you put it so precisely) is that "
they are simply 'us'";
they look like 'us', they talk like 'us', they behave like 'us' (on the surface) and we can even get lulled into thinking that they think like 'us'.
The process to eliminate these forces from Pakistan is not easy at this time, but tragically and more so dangerously; with the passage of time it will get even more difficult. That bears thinking about.
As an Indian, I do not see any satisfaction in seeing this happen again and again on an ever increasing scale. Its not about seeing some aircraft being destroyed (you may assume that I celebrated that), but to see a society facing a threat of being destroyed is something else. The portents of that are there, first these elements took on common people at the bottom of the heap (like the attack at Data Darbar), now they have upscaled their targets much higher; give that a thought.
And Icarus (my friend and colleague on this forum) this is for you.
One man in uniform laid down his life doing his job, a great job. I mourn that, I also mourn that his life was taken away by people who might have very well have been from his own. To me that is the greatest tragedy.
You will understand what I mean.
