Vital Concerns for the World: Civil War in the Tribal Areas?

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Civil War in the Tribal Areas?

An article that appeared today in the Guardian suggests that the Pushtun tribes are now mobilizing against the Taliban, and presumably Al Qaeda. According to the article the local populations still have the ability to control the Taliban in most of the tribal areas although that ability has been lost in Swat.
A civil war in the Tribal Areas? The Americans will surely see this as good news. However, there is the factor of the Pak army, which as many have noted is conflicted on how to develop the country. Even as the army can't control its own Taliban [and other Islamist groups it has been nourishing for years] it doesn't want the Americans to attack the Taliban in the Tribal Areas. Pride of sovereignty even if it can't be enforced.
But if the tribes unite against the Taliban [if most of them actually join this project it will be one of the few times such a unification of tribes has ever happened] then that will dramatically change the scene in Pakistan.
This could be big news.
[Click on the title to link to the article]

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