4 Threat Matrix: Pakistan reaps harvest of poisoned peace deals

Written by Bill Roggio on October 23, 2009 12:42 AM to 4 Threat Matrix

Available online at: http://www.longwarjournal.org/threat-matrix/archives/2009/10/pakistan_reaps_harvest_of_pois.php

Nek Mohammed, the former leader of the Taliban in South Waziristan, speaks to his followers after being showered with gifts by the Pakistani Army after a peace agreement on April 24, 2004. Nek was later killed in a US Predator strike, and was replaced by Baitullah Mehsud, who was killed in another Predator strike on Aug. 5, 2009. AFP Photo.

McClatchy has a must-read article on the long-lasting negative effects of the "peace agreements" the Pakistani Army has cut with the Taliban during prior operations. The Mehsud tribesmen who were interviewed for the article expressed "deep, corrosive cynicism" about the sincerity of the military and the Inter-Service Intelligence agency and their relationship with the Taliban. Many are convinced a new peace agreement will be signed and that the government conducts the operations to siphon aid dollars from the US. Here are some select quotes:

"The government has used the people like toilet paper, used them and thrown them away," thundered the spiritual leader and founder of the anti-Taliban Mehsud militia, Maulvi Sher Mohammad, in an interview.

...

"We cannot fight alongside the army because my people do not yet know whether the army and the Taliban are friends or enemies," said Mohammad. "When we see the army crush them (the Taliban ), then we'll believe."

...

Mehsuds remember bitterly how in 2005, following such a deal, a Pakistani army general literally embraced the then- Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, and called him "a soldier of peace." A U.S. missile strike killed the militant leader in August.

...

"This fight (in South Waziristan ) is for American dollars. The government always has some deal with the Taliban . It is ordinary people who suffer," said student Zahidullah Mehsud, who thought he was around 19 years old, as he lined up at a registration center for those displaced by the operation. "This is all an ISI game."

Couple this with the wholesale destruction of villages in South Waziristan and the denial of any civilian casualties, and the military and the government have a long way to go before winning any hearts and minds in South Waziristan.