The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #102635 Message #2105472
Posted By: Q (Frank Staplin)
17-Jul-07 - 07:41 PM
Thread Name: Salman Rushdie - Outrage.
Subject: RE: Salman Rushdie - Outrage.
The northwest frontier and Waziristan provinces constitute a large area in nortern Pakistan. The sole control is exercised by a number of tribal leaders, most of whom adhere to social forms that were prevalent in biblical times. Millions of Pushtun live in the region and subscribe to rigorous codes; the Taliban is the name of the young, those attending the madrassas, not a small, definable militant group susceptible to limited military actions.
Musharrif is unable, and never will be able, to enforce his rule over this large area and its peoples. He has made an understanding with the tribal heads that he will not interfere in the area, if they will not try to extend their fundamentalism to the more moderate regions under his rule. His control of the more moderate regions is shaky, and becoming more so as he attempts to bring all moderate groups under his control.
If some of the warlords shield alQueda (sp.) militants, there is little that he can do to stop them.
The U. S. attempts to control the Afganistan border, and Musharrif attempts to prevent militants from entering more moderate areas of Pakistan. A herculean task.