U.S.: Afghan attacks way up since truce - Yahoo! News
The headline to the story above immediately suggests that Pakistan’s truce with Pashtun tribes in the Waziristan area is a bad thing. Now that the tribesman no longer have to worry about harassment from Pakistani troops, they are free to launch attacks across the border with Afghanistan.
I initially thought that a negative and then I started to think about it. I am not so sure it is a bad thing and might even be a good thing. The first positive is that it eases some of the pressure on erstwhile American ally Pervez Musharraf. I know it doesn’t always look like he’s on our side but it could be worse. Pakistan could have a government in place that actively, overtly supports Al Qaeda. Calling a ceasefire with border-area tribesman may allow Musharraf to hang on a while longer.
The second positive is that these cross-border attacks finally bring the bad guys out in the open where they can be hit. When they were hiding in Pakistan, they were practically untouchable, at least by NATO and Afghan troops. Pakistani troops may have been in the area but you have to guess that they probably weren’t 100 percent motivated to take on these rebels, mainly because some troops may have had split loyalties or may have been sympathetic to the rebels.
Now that the bad guys are crossing the border into Afghanistan, there are no political considerations when it comes to taking them out. They can be shot at, bombed, killed and captured without anyone raising an eyebrow. The attacks may have increased in number, but that might be good in the long run. It gives the U.S. and its allies an opportunity to thin the herd and kill some of its enemies. Only time will tell if we’re able to kill enough of them to make a difference.
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