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Editorial See other Editorial Articles Title: Negotiate with the Taliban LONDON -- Washington and Ottawa keep telling us how well things are going in Afghanistan. But Vice-President Dick Cheney's brief visit there last week showed just the opposite. Cheney arrived at Bagram air base, formerly the nerve centre for the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Today, it plays the same role for the U.S. occupation. A suicide bomber attacked the base's main gate, killing 22 and hugely embarrassing Cheney. Worse, the 60-km "secure" highway between Bagram and Kabul has become so dangerous that Cheney had to fly into Kabul on a U.S. Air Force transport to meet with the American-installed figurehead leader, Hamid Karzai. Anti-Western forces are quickly gaining ground in Afghanistan. What Washington and Ottawa keep claiming is an "anti-terrorist operation" against a handful of al-Qaida fighters and Taliban has, in fact, turned into fast-growing Afghan national resistance to foreign occupation. Were it not for the U.S. Air Force's might and ubiquitous presence, U.S., Canadian, and British troops would soon be driven from southern Afghanistan. The fast-deteriorating situation in Afghanistan is provoking furious finger-pointing. Washington, London and Ottawa are blaming Pakistan for sheltering and abetting Taliban and its allies. Pakistan blames the feeble Karzai regime which can't control its own territory. Now, U.S intelligence reports that al-Qaida has reconstituted itself. Cheney went on to Pakistan to threaten its military ruler, President Pervez Musharraf, with a cutoff of U.S. aid -- and perhaps much worse -- if he didn't crack down further on Pashtun tribesmen in the wild Northwest Frontier provinces who are aiding Taliban and other Pashtun and nationalist resistance groups. The 40 million Pashtun, the world's largest tribe, have never recognized the British-drawn 1893 border between Pakistan and Afghanistan that cuts their traditional territory in two. They cross it at will and maintain close links with relatives and clansmen on the other side of the border. In the 1980's and 90's, I explored and became fascinated by the wild, lawless, then little-known frontier tribal agencies of north and south Waziristan, Khyber, Mohmand, Orakzai and Malakand. Their warlike, fiercely independent tribes joined Pakistan in 1947 under constitutional guarantee of total autonomy that excluded government soldiers from the tribal agencies. Intense U.S pressure forced Musharraf to violate the constitution and send troops into the tribal territories. The army shamefully launched heavy attacks, killing over 3,000 civilians. Outrage across Pakistan forced Musharraf to back down and withdraw some troops. "Fight India, not your own people," cried the press. Most Pakistanis oppose the U.S occupation of Afghanistan, support their old ally, Taliban, and think better of Osama bin Laden than George Bush. Many senior and junior officers in Pakistan's powerful military and intelligence service, ISI, feel similarly and are furious at Musharraf for abandoning the Taliban and groups fighting to oust Indian rule in Kashmir. Musharraf is thus caught between growing demands by Washington and his own angry people who increasingly see him as an American tool. Washington simply does not understand it has pushed the isolated, unpopular Musharraf too far already. If he is blown up or overthrown, Pakistan and its 40-60 nuclear weapons could turn into an even bigger and more dangerous hotbed of anti-western activity. FOOLISH PROPOSAL But that's just what is happening, as Washington blames its Afghanistan fiasco on whipping boy Pakistan, just as the Vietnam defeat was blamed on infiltration from Cambodia and Laos. Recently, a remarkably ill-informed defence minister foolishly proposed sending Canadian troops into Pakistan, a nation of 162 million with 619,000 very tough soldiers. Picking a fight with old, loyal ally Pakistan is both morally wrong and fraught with untold dangers. The U.S. has forgotten how it forced another compliant military dictator, Egypt's Anwar Sadat, into policies his people hated. He was assassinated, to national joy. Negotiating a deal with Taliban and other Afghan resistance forces is the only way out of this morass, not expanding a war that is already lost.
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