The Enemy Within: The Pakistani Taliban
Islamabad looks as colorful as ever, but even the capital is on constant warning. Pakistan is under aggression from within. More than 5,000 Pakistani soldiers have been executed and nearly 9,000 injured battling militants on the western border. Some of the terrorists are Afghan and Arab fanatics who escaped from Afghanistan, but most are Pakistani stimulated by the external militants to massacre, cripple and bomb their own people.
The casualties aren't just soldiers. There are assaults on noncombatants, like the bombing of a police commencement ceremony. The main wrongdoers are the Pakistani Taliban. They're product of the Afghan Taliban and they're even more barbarous. For ten years Pakistan's leading specialist on extremism, Ahmed Rashid, has advised of their ascent.
From being a very small band ruling an insignificant area they have spread. They now have recruited militant groups in Karachi, Punjab, Sindh, Kashmiri and many other places. There is now a total extremist activity in Pakistan that is trying to eradicate the State.
The ideas and handlers of some of the worst acts of terrorism take up residence in these distant areas – in a place named Waziristan. According to the US intel, even the Bali explosions that killed 88 Australians can be tracked down to this place. Pakistan's penetrable border with Afghanistan is completely open to crooks and extremists. Since 2002 it's been the exact residence of al Qaeda and the Taliban. They simply moved here after the US-led attack on Afghanistan.
This border is normally banned for most Pakistanis let alone strangers, but the author of this documentary has been given exceptional access to go inside Pakistan's interior war. It's taken months for the film crew to get authorization to go to the tribal area. The army has agreed to drive them to a part it says it's "free", but they have to move with heavily-armed escort. The army will also have the final word on what they can record.
The Pakistan army supports terrorist organization and use them to spread terror in Afghanistan and India . The truth has been revealed and the Pakistan army is caught naked.
Bolshevik2014
You are inviting American as you like them more as allys. I pray that your wish come true and they had to invade your country and have you taste of their friendship.
Having lost their families, homes, and futures I know I could not remain passive, and the great majority of Americans feel manipulated and lied to by their government's about what they were doing there in the first place. The 9/11 murderers were in the great majority from Saudi Arabia and when all planes were grounded across the USA, the one exception was to allow the return of the Saudi hierarchy safe passage home. I am incredulous over this action and to have had done it without questioning them, guilty or not, is far beyond the scope of any logical reasoning I can come up with.
A stolen election, an invasion of Iraq based on lies ... well I could go on for a long time, suffice to say if they had grounds to hate Americans before all this, a whole new generation got to see first hand why. The worst thing is that this is far from over. We will soon have to deal with Russia, China, and Iran as an opponent all of which have interests in common. Putin is a very duplicitous character and having watched him interviewed, saying there is no place for the US and that they are no longer the super power, one has to assume he considers it to be Russia. The coming wars will by necessity include at least partially a nuclear component. I'd be surprised not to see this within five to ten years from now. And it will start without warning, because the first side to do so may be the only side left standing. By all means let me know what you think.
Pakistan is paying the price for the long friendship with US while US believe "Friends are the Masters". After getting the economics shattered with an estimated loss of over US $3 trillion in just fifteen years Pakistan must realize now that if US is the friend then Pakistan does not need any enemy. What Pakistan have proved? simply paid the price to be the Atomic Power parallel to India which is the lucrative economic market for western allies of Pakistan. At the cost of hunger, sickness, poverty, Pakistan develop most advance safety and security system for the nation that remain helpless while Pakistan lost 70,000 or over lives and over 30 million effected due to 70,000 live losses. Who shared the tears with Pakistan? The allies, the friends, the neighbors? Did ATOM protected the 70,000? Share the war against the terror and loose the peasce at home?
I just noticed a minor, or perhaps major, irony. The Americans help the Pakistanis in everything. They fund stuff, provide training and goods. Yet so many people hate them there.
In India, if they had provided the same kind of assistance, they would have found good allies. Teenagers in India are more used to Americans and have the same kind of benevolent feeling towards them seen in South Korea.
So who is the best ally here?
Perhaps it is because some actions have greater impact than others. No matter how many billions America pays us, we will never forget the countless innocent lives that Americans killed in drone attacks and referring to them as collateral damage.
Majority of people think that the terrorism actually started due to America, that thing has been hard to explain. Unless there is an explanation, I think the hate will continue.
Anyone else think it odd the contrast between America's treatment of Pakistan and Iran? Docs like this do a fair job of pointing out what I personally would perceive as a more immediate "clear and present danger". If the problem is having an Islamic fundamentalist force armed with nuclear weaponry then shouldn't the focus be on halting the ongoing Pakistani state degradation and averting the case where their stockpile start showing up in other fundamentalist sh*tholes? Bombing weddings from a distance via drones is certainly not working as far as I can make out. I'm not calling for a war against Pakistan, I'm just wondering does anybody else find this discrepancy a little irksome?
Edit: The doc was okay, I've seen much better over the years. BBC and Channel 4 usually do a much better job of getting dug in deep with regards to this particular area.
if a bully knows you have a black belt in tae kwon do, and the kid next to you is a skinny "trekkie", who do you see them trying to "liberate" lunch money from? the same applies to international politics, especially from an "american national interests" perspective.
Yeah pretty much this. It's just frustrating how off target news coverage and common perception, in general, seems to be. A bit like how Saudi Arabia seems to always get a free pass.
the house of saud is a firm believer in the "petro-dollar". saddam wasn't (neck stretched), gaddafi wasn't (brutalized to death in the streets), mubarak was showing doubts (overthrown, awaiting conviction and execution), assad was leaning towards the "petro-euro" bloc (in our crosshairs now). pakistan has no dog in that fight, and feeds none of our "strategic interests"
I dont know wheather you people are amarican or from where , but reality is that you dont know whats going in Pakistan , Actually US drone attackes killed 50,000 civilians including Old ,young, Child ,Womens...know for example you are the guy wake up early in morning having breakFast and ready to go for work, you had a son , wife , parents etc and a beautiful house, morning whrn you left them for office with a happy faces and in evening when you return back you home is destroyed, wife, child, parent are killed by US drones, and then in media says that US drone strike killing this number of terirrests ....thats why you find hatred for American in Pakistan , actually Obama is top listed terirrest ....