In my last post I mentioned that as long as the Punjab and Sindh were stable, threats to Pakistan were really marginal. The above NY Times article says that the Punjab is becoming destabilized, so that is really bad news. What is confusing is I thought that the Taliban was primarily a Pashtun phenomenon, however it appears that islamic miilitancy is gaining ground amongst the Pujabi as well. Further I fear, al queda has a terrible strategy. They saw in Iraq how effective shia sunni strife could be in destabling a country, well Pakistan has shia sunni tensions that al queda may seek to exploit by targeting the shia. This is because to extreem members of al queda shia are apostates and thus deserving of death so attaches against them can be justified. As the article alludes, there is great devision between the wealth rulling classes and the poor in Pakistan. How much can the goverment really be effective against these millitant groups establising local zones of influence and intimidation? Especially when the millitants can paint those that oppose them as american stooges? Things are not good...
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Maybe its worse than I thought
Allied Militants Threaten Pakistan’s Populous Heart
In my last post I mentioned that as long as the Punjab and Sindh were stable, threats to Pakistan were really marginal. The above NY Times article says that the Punjab is becoming destabilized, so that is really bad news. What is confusing is I thought that the Taliban was primarily a Pashtun phenomenon, however it appears that islamic miilitancy is gaining ground amongst the Pujabi as well. Further I fear, al queda has a terrible strategy. They saw in Iraq how effective shia sunni strife could be in destabling a country, well Pakistan has shia sunni tensions that al queda may seek to exploit by targeting the shia. This is because to extreem members of al queda shia are apostates and thus deserving of death so attaches against them can be justified. As the article alludes, there is great devision between the wealth rulling classes and the poor in Pakistan. How much can the goverment really be effective against these millitant groups establising local zones of influence and intimidation? Especially when the millitants can paint those that oppose them as american stooges? Things are not good...
In my last post I mentioned that as long as the Punjab and Sindh were stable, threats to Pakistan were really marginal. The above NY Times article says that the Punjab is becoming destabilized, so that is really bad news. What is confusing is I thought that the Taliban was primarily a Pashtun phenomenon, however it appears that islamic miilitancy is gaining ground amongst the Pujabi as well. Further I fear, al queda has a terrible strategy. They saw in Iraq how effective shia sunni strife could be in destabling a country, well Pakistan has shia sunni tensions that al queda may seek to exploit by targeting the shia. This is because to extreem members of al queda shia are apostates and thus deserving of death so attaches against them can be justified. As the article alludes, there is great devision between the wealth rulling classes and the poor in Pakistan. How much can the goverment really be effective against these millitant groups establising local zones of influence and intimidation? Especially when the millitants can paint those that oppose them as american stooges? Things are not good...
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