Author:
Publication: The Washington Post
Date: November 2, 2003
URL: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49233-2003Oct31.html
The Pakistani city of Quetta lately
has become more than a provincial capital; it might also be described as
the new headquarters of the extremist Taliban movement, which ruled Afghanistan
and sheltered Osama bin Laden until two years ago. According to one recent
report by the respected Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid, "Thousands of
Taliban fighters reside in mosques and madrassas with the full support
of a provincial ruling party and militant Pakistani groups. Taliban leaders
wanted by the U.S. and Kabul governments are living openly in nearby villages."
Mr. Rashid quoted the provincial government's information minister as saying,
"Only the Taliban can constitute the real government of Afghanistan." During
a recent visit, The Post's John Lancaster met with a Taliban recruiter
who described how he traveled with 14 other Pakistanis across the border
into Afghanistan last summer to wage war against U.S. and Afghan government
forces. "It's no problem at all to cross back and forth," the recruiter
said.
All this is happening in a country
whose government claims to be an ally of the United States in the war on
terrorism and to which the Bush administration has pledged more than $3
billion in aid -- the down payment on what it describes as a "long-term
commitment." The Taliban leaders and their followers are not ensconced
in remote caves or dispersed across trackless badlands but operate openly
in a major city, where they effectively control several neighborhoods.
Local politicians deliver speeches and raise money on their behalf. When
they travel to Afghanistan to carry out attacks, they cross not in ones
or twos but by the score, in buses that are waved through by Pakistani
border guards. In the past several months they have killed more than 400
Afghan civilians and soldiers, along with several U.S. soldiers, in various
attacks.
If Afghanistan now is in danger
of slipping back into the chaos of civil war, the haven and support found
by a regrouping Taliban in Pakistan is a major cause. Yet the Bush administration
continues to shrink from demanding accountability from President Pervez
Musharraf. Last month, just before a visit to Islamabad, Deputy Secretary
of State Richard L. Armitage hinted at an open secret -- that parts of
Gen. Musharraf's army and security forces don't support the war on terrorism.
But the army carried out a raid against al Qaeda just before the arrival
of the American delegation, and Mr. Armitage pronounced himself "thrilled"
by his conversation with Mr. Musharraf. "This is a special relationship
to the United States," he said, "one that President Bush treasures particularly."
The Bush administration seems to
believe it has no choice but to work with Mr. Musharraf, who is good at
promising to combat Islamic extremism -- and at pointing to it as the alternative
should his government fail. In late September the administration coaxed
its client to sign a written agreement promising to strengthen control
over "frontier areas bordering Afghanistan." That's a big job, but it's
hard to see why Mr. Musharraf can't at least prevent open Taliban operations
in Quetta and other cities. Congress recently renewed conditions on aid
to Pakistan and added a provision requiring the administration to certify
that Pakistan is cooperating in the war on terrorism. If the United States
is to continue supporting his regime, the general must be held to that
requirement.
