Taliban gains in Pakistan

The Taliban took control of a key Pakistani town just 60 miles from Islamabad last week, raising concerns that the Pakistani government is unable or unwilling to stand up to the Islamic insurgency. After days of mounting U.S. criticism, the Pakistani military sent fighter jets and troops into the region this week and said it had retaken it. But U.S. officials were skeptical. “The test of all these Pakistani military operations is always their sustainability,” said Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell.

Under a deal with the government, the militants were supposed to lay down their arms in exchange for permission to enforce strict Islamic law in the Swat Valley. Instead, they expanded into the nearby Buner district. President Obama is expected to personally voice his concerns about Taliban gains to Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari when the leaders meet in Washington next week.

The Pakistanis are flirting with disaster, said The New York Times in an editorial. If the Indian army had penetrated to within 60 miles of Islamabad, “you can bet Pakistan’s army would be fully mobilized and defending the country in pitched battles.” Yet when it comes to the Taliban, the government largely shrugs. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was right when she warned that Pakistan was at risk of “abdicating to the Taliban.”

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It’s hardly surprising, said Arnaud de Borchgrave in The Washington Times. The military is made up of Taliban sympathizers, “brainwashed” by madrasa education to believe that shooting at militants is “tantamount to killing the soldiers of Allah.” If the army continues to effectively run Pakistan, it could see “a rerun of the Islamist fundamentalist revolution in Iran.”

That’s why Obama must unequivocally demand that Pakistan enact true military reform, said Rajesh M. Basrur and Sumit Ganguly in Newsweek. This crucial U.S. ally “will never be saved from the threat of religious extremists until it fundamentally restructures its deeply dysfunctional government.”