MINGORA, Pakistan (AP) — NATO warned Tuesday that Pakistan risked creating a safe haven for Islamist extremists after it struck a deal to impose Islamic law and suspend a military offensive in the former tourist haven of Swat.
Criticism of the truce mounted as a hardline cleric dispatched by the government to convince the Taliban to stop fighting as part of the deal arrived in the Swat Valley's main city of Mingora to a hero's welcome.
NATO says it has 55,000 troops across the border in Afghanistan, and many of them have come under attack by Taliban and al-Qaida fighters believed to have sought refuge in pockets of Pakistan's northwest.
"It is certainly reason for concern," NATO spokesman James Appathurai said in Brussels about the latest deal. "We should all be concerned by a situation in which extremists would have a safe haven. Without doubting the good faith of the Pakistani government, it is clear that the region is suffering very badly from extremists and we would not want it to get worse."
Britain also weighed in with reservations.
"Previous peace deals have not provided a comprehensive and long-term solution to Swat's problems," said a statement from the British High Commission in Islamabad. "We need to be confident that they will end violence — not create space for further violence."
Much more at link.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/articl... I will say this plain and simple: we
cannot win the war in Afghanistan so long as the Taliban has a safe base in Pakistan. What the Pakistani government has done amounts to a surrender: they will be withdrawing their troops, ending hostilities, and allowing the Taliban to impose Islamic law, all without requiring the Taliban to disarm itself.
So long as Pakistan cannot control its own territory, and so long they do not allow us to control that territory in their name, Afghanistan is lost. It is only a matter of how long we wish to delay that.
