Swat Taliban summon government officials to sharia courts - The Long War Journal

Pakistani forces have been fighting forces aligned with Fazlullah, a radical cleric of the outlawed Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM - the Movement for the Implementation of Mohammad’s Sharia Law) for almost two years.

The TNSM is known as the “Pakistani Taliban” and is the group behind the ideological inspiration for the Afghan Taliban. The TNSM sent more than 10,000 fighters into Afghanistan to fight US forces during Operation Enduring Freedom in October 2001. Sufi Mohammed, the leader of the TNSM, was released from a Pakistani jail in a failed peace agreement with the Swat Taliban.

Fazlullah merged with Baitullah Mehsud’s Tehrik-e-Taliban, or the movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, in December 2007.

Fazlullah has successfully organized a campaign opposing polio vaccinations and has forced the closure girls’ schools throughout the region. More than 200 schools have been destroy in Swat since fighting began in 2007.

The fighting has destroyed Swat’s once thriving tourist industry. Fazlullah’s forces have burned down the popular ski lodge and bombed the lifts.

The biggest, and most ignored, lesson of Vietnam was that if you give your enemies a safe haven, you can never defeat them. Iran has been a permanent safe haven for the enemies of the current leadership of Iraq, and those who soothe themselves that they have won a “victory” in Iraq are likely to be terribly shocked when the Iraqi government comes entirely under Tehran’s influence and defacto control after Obama pulls out the troops.

Similarly, Pakistan has provided a safe haven for the fanatic Islamofascists who oppose the US-supported government in Afghanistan. Since America is unlikely to do anything about either haven, I don’t have a sanguine outlook for the long-term future of either Iraq or Afghanistan.

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