"From my point of view, they have walked exactly in the footprints of Mohammed: they've spent years inculcating followers and building warrior ethics, made a show of imposing some needed justice, and made temporary treaties that were deceptions to attain power."
I don't know about walking in the footprints of Mohammed but your premise is sound. Despite the afghan memory of the taliban's excesses, the general view in Pakistan has always connoted a favorable view of the taliban. It explains how Pakistan has been able to tolerate so comfortably the presence of Omar's exiled taliban gov't of Afghanistan and it's army.
Omar, in turn, has been VERY careful to avoid ambitions grander than his focus upon Afghanistan. He's even worked on behalf of the Pakistani gov't to arrange a treaty between Bahadur, Nazir, and Mehsud that would bring B.M. fully on-board with the afghan insurgency and deflect his ambitions away from Pakistan.
The recently failed Waziristan treaties were government attempts at exactly such. Becoming "good" taliban has until very recently remained an ambition, it would seem, of all, including the general population of Pakistan.
The beating of the young lady has changed perceptions measurably. If I had to point to one single event, it would be thus. Odd given the beheadings we've all witnessed-many of Pakistani soldiers and civilians, this event finally drove home (I believe) the starkest implications.
I've re-iterated here that the afghanis, in general, are dismayed by the decrease in their security. This is reflected in polls that show U.S. popularity slip from the low 80s just following the Kabul re-conquest into the low 60s. Those numbers are real enough and indicate a certain decline in confidence.
What we've NEVER seen has been a corresponding increase in taliban numbers. They risen, to be sure-from about 3% to 7% in the latest ABC/BBC/ARD polls. So nobody in Afghanistan, however difficult things have been, are eager to see these men in power. They know too well what to expect.
What explains the beating video? More than anything, the sense of trust being violated. Comments and actions made clear that Faizullah's men weren't listening to Sufi Mohammad in the slightest nor was SHARIA ever intended as anything but a cheap rationale for a foothold to expand further.
Hubris and blatant arrogance had creeped into their demeanor so insidiously to not be noticed from within but apparent to all others as they watched the video of the young lady so callously demeaned by her beating.
It is what Afghanis have suffered in the past, suffer today in those areas controlled or contested, and shall suffer should Omar has his way. It is what Pakistan can expect so long as these men are revered much less tolerated on your soil.
They are the same and, for once, have failed to manage the message. The truth, uncovered, is plainly brutal and foretells the future should the Taliban win.
The media is a highway and anybody can use it. Who knows where the final nail drops from that phone camera?
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