Pakistani Offensive a Success?

Fitting in nicely with my previous post on the NYT's article on Pakistan this morning is the following article from the Los Angeles Times, Pakistani operation against militants raises questions. I raise my point again - if we want Al Qaeda and the Taliban cleared from the tribal and northwest regions of Pakistan, we are going to have to do it ourselves. The terrorists have allies throughout the local level Pakistani military, and cannot be trusted to do the job.

PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN -- When government troops pushed their way into a local warlord's stronghold just outside one of Pakistan's major cities over the weekend, what they found followed a familiar pattern.

With plenty of warning from officials that troops were coming, Islamic insurgents in the mountainous Bara district outside Peshawar, the provincial capital, had simply melted away, disappearing into a remote valley to the north.

Pakistani authorities declared Sunday that the district had been restored to their control. But residents said they expected the militants to return whenever it suited them.

The controlling forces within the regions on the Pakistan's border with Afghanistan are tribal, and respect force and power. The one thing we have going for us in these regions is that the Pakistani government doesn't control them - they're like fully independent little countries. Show the tribal leaders money, and tell them that they can have their territories, but they first need to give up the Taliban and Al Qaeda - or be destroyed in the process.

Pakistan will explode, but that's happened before. The true power in Pakistan is the military, and the military will have to take control once again. Hopefully, our allies in the military will see the light and 'take care of' those in the military that support the Taliban and Al Qaeda so that the nuclear weapons won't get in the wrong hands. But we must do what we must do, and let the chips fall where they may...

Time to stop fooling around.