U.S. Shouldn’t Wait To Take Out The Taliban

The Washington Post reported that the Pentagon was making contingency plans to attack the Pakistani Taliban in the Northwest Frontier Provence (NWFP) of Pakistan, only in the event of a successful “catastrophic” terrorist attack on American soil. The Pentagon apparently is convinced that only if such an attack occurs will the administration order retaliation. An anonymous senior said. Let's not kowtow to these people. U.S. military official told the Post that there are fears that a unilateral strike inside Pakistan’s territory against the Taliban could jeopardize Pakistan’s cooperation in the war on terror. I’d like to know whose fears are these. To appease the anti-American masses in Pakistan, the Asif Ali Zardari government has protested U.S. military drone strikes in Waziristan, a part of the lawless NWFP terrorist not-so-safe haven of the Pakistani Taliban, despite some drones being launched from Pakistani soil. The Pakistani army knows it’s stretched thin between massing forces along the Indian border and waging an unpopular war in the NWFP. Its armed forces are also deeply dependent on U.S. military funding and training to persevere. In reality, Pakistan probably hopes the U.S. will use massive air strikes and Special Forces in Afghanistan near the Pakistan border to make their job easier and end their struggle more quickly. Faisal Shahzad received a crash course on bomb making at a Taliban training camp in Waziristan. Besides Times Square, he also intended to place explosive devices at other New York City landmarks like Grand Central Station. What if his bomb had gone off in Times Square and killed untold tourists who were out on the town to watch a Broadway play? Would that be “catastrophic” enough for this administration to act? The Intelligence Community has already confirmed the Pakistan Taliban provided the training and inspiration for the attempted attack, so why wait until Americans are killed before the U.S. does what needs to be done? There is no downside in unleashing the U.S. air force on Waziristan. It would be a win-win situation for both the U.S. and Pakistan. Waziristan remains the strong hold for both Afghan and Pakistani Taliban fighters. The U.S. should take the fight to the enemy to stop them from disrupting our military’s supply chain to Afghanistan, killing innocent Pakistanis in mosques in Lahore, causing chaos in Karachi, and recruiting more fighters in Afghanistan. The U.S. didn’t hesitate to invade Afghanistan to fight the Taliban there, so why shouldn’t it take decisive action in Pakistan to finish the job? President Zardari knows his relationship with the U.S. places him and his government between a rock and a hard place. As much as he wants to see the U.S. go away, his country is totally dependent on the U.S. aid to fight its insurgents. Striking Waziristan would go a long way in defeating insurgents and it would help stabilize the flimsy Pakistan government and restore order there. It would also help stabilize Afghanistan when fewer fighters cross its border to fight U.S., NATO and Afghan security forces. A massive air strike would deny both versions of the Taliban a safe-haven, and if we got lucky, it might even kill Osama Bin Laden and the top leadership of Al-Qaeda. From my four years of experience as a DEA special agent on a diplomat assignment to Pakistan in the mid-1990s, I know Pakistan desperately needs help to defeat insurgents and stabilize its government. Pakistan would rather negotiate peace with the Taliban then take them head on because many in its military are sympathetic to the Taliban and its religious goals; after all, Pakistan facilitated the establishment of the Taliban in Afghanistan to promote stability there. To them, a Taliban government was better than no government at all, and Afghanistan would be one less enemy they had to deal with. I hope the administration will seriously consider military action in Waziristan now, rather than wait until another Pakistan Taliban inspired and trained jihad warrior actually succeeds in committing mass murder on American soil.