Zardari: We Underestimated Taliban Threat

Pakistan's President Tells 60 Minutes The Country Is In A Battle To Survive

(CBS)  They took us to a former Taliban command post less than ten miles from the Afghanistan border to show us what they had been up against. Inside the mud walls and beneath the compound was an intricate set of tunnels.

"These tunnels are linked for more than one mile," one soldier told Kroft.

The tunnels in the area not only were connected to underground rooms, but to other compounds, and were deep enough to withstand artillery fire. The tunnels took years to build, an indication of how long the Taliban were allowed to flourish in Bajaur.

"Do you think it was a mistake not going up against the Taliban earlier?" Kroft asked Gen. Khan.

"I think we should have nipped the evil in the bud. Much earlier. We dilly dallied, we hoped that it would go away," Khan acknowledged. "It didn't work."

And he acknowledged that the Taliban is their enemy now. "They have to be dismantled. They have to be destroyed."

Along with much of Bajour: after the battle, the Pakistani military brought in bulldozers to level the buildings that were still standing, to make sure the Taliban won't return. The people who lived there have been relocated, along with 200,000 others to refugee camps outside Peshawar. And the remnants of the Taliban have also moved.

Some of them moved to Mohmand, the next tribal district to the south. A Pakistani frontier outpost there regularly fires artillery salvos at suspected Taliban enclaves. The Pakistani commanders walked 60 Minutes up a steep hill to point out one of their outposts that was attacked by 600 Taliban soldiers just three nights earlier.

A commander told Kroft it was the biggest they attack that they had ever faced there.

The Pakistanis claim 110 Taliban soldiers were killed that night, with only six losses to their side. "This was most probably a kind of last ditch effort by them," the commander said.

But not everyone is so optimistic. Bruce Riedel, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute, spent 30 years as a CIA analyst, and has advised President Obama on the situation in Pakistan.

"This is unprecedented to have this many Pakistani troops there. Unfortunately, almost all of them are not trained in counter-insurgency warfare. They’re trying to use the tactics that they would use against the Indian Army, armored warfare, against an enemy that is an unconventional force," Riedel said.

[mishi_1682]

does any one knw about babar gul of gul houses

[esaun211]

Poor Pakistan, caught in the middle of one group of terrorist that want women face covered, dumb, and subject to public beat downs; while the other group of terrorist gone kill, maim, and rape them in the liberation process(strategic mishaps). Muslims need to convert to Christianity so they can get a better understanding of why Jesus wants us to have their oil; besides they should of got the message the first time we came crusading on horseback.

[Mirza-G]

Recently a friend of mine was thrown out with his family,at gun point, of his home in Karachi by Architect and Engineer's Society at Blk 19 Gulistan's e Johar by the controlling land mafia Babar Gul who has an office there.When my friend contacted someone he knew in intelligence in pakistan, he was told that nothing can be done asZardari may be getting some of the proceeds .He reminded my friend :don't you remember Zardari as mr.10%? So my point is ,if the President of a nation is thought to take the wealth by any means then what is to become of that nation.Only an act of God can save the helpless people of Pakistan.

[mishi_1682]

do u knw any thing more about babar gul ... plzzz email me at [e-mail]

i m his victum tooo

[rockerrb]

I would like to respond to some criticism coming from that high level US government official about the way Pakistan is waging war with the taliban. I commend Pakistan on their efforts. I think they are waging war the only way they know how and are doing the best they can at it. I think their efforts are long overdue. Maybe some of the billions of dollars we've sent them in foreign aid are finally starting to do some good. I think that they are committed to it and they see that the taliban are a big threat to their own country. You can't negotiate with terrorists.

[ajjaxtheleast]

Of course India would NEVER think of sending a little
grease into Pakistan to make the Taliban machine
operate a bit more smoothly,,,

And Russia would NEVER think of sending a little
something into Afghanistan as payback for the
Stinger missles we sent into
THEIR Afghanistan adventure.

We're making enough enemies that we could become the
buffalo trying to fight off a pack of dogs.

Zardari is here delivering ,now, OBAMA'S message.

Doesn't it bother anyone that after 7 years and not being able
to leave our "victory" in Iraq we are now headlong into
it's sequal in Afghanistan displacing 2-million people and
our errant missles AGAIN killing citizens?

The answer is "no" because we have no imagination,,,

Misery elicits no mental image in our minds,,,

We dont even make an effort to imagine what 2-MILLION
of ANYTHING is let alone 2-million displaced PEOPLE dieing
along the way in their attempt to escape from our remedy to
solve a problem in THEIR country that will ease our
"war" in yet another country.

Is there ANY crime that uttering the word "terrorist"
wont make acceptable?

[rallyafag]

Posted by exusmcsgt at 06:34 AM : Feb 16, 2009
+ report abuse

*****

REALLY DOUBT YOU ARE A MARINE..

[rallyafag]

They thought we would juggernaut right through Afghanistan and Iraq and, 7 1/2 years later, we''''re still there and fighting an uphill battle.....

Posted by exusmcsgt at 06:34 AM : Feb 16, 2009
+ report abuse

***********
I wonder why you are an ex soldier?????

[rallyafag]

It is also the purpose behind religion - shut down the individual''''s own thought processes so that they can be dictated to and accept it willingly.

Posted by exusmcsgt at 06:36 AM : Feb 16, 2009
+ report abuse

*****gotta give it to religion though..it kept you from extinction

[ubir]

The 12 minutes does not portray the origin of Taliban. Pakistan and the US created this monster in 1980''s to fight the guerrilla war against the USSR in Afghanistan. The Pakistan army and the ISI helped build, train and provided heat seeking missiles and other equipments. It is a known fact that US lost inventory of many of these missile launchers that are still used by Taliban. After the war, Pakistan kept patronizing them for their means to fight Kashmir. Now when you breed a monster using your official machinery (Pakistan intelligence and military), how can you just walk away when ideologies and sympathy are deeply embedded into the Pakistan military. Just because Taliban killed the president%u2019s wife and he wants to root out Taliban, it doesn%u2019t mean all of the army who helped build Taliban share this view. But it is definitely a progress that Pakistan has openly admitted to this after decades of denial.

[exusmcsgt]

This is the problem with religion occupying so much of ones life. It tends to direct people in directions they should never go.

Posted by j45453 at 09:20 PM : Feb 15, 2009

It is also the purpose behind religion - shut down the individual''s own thought processes so that they can be dictated to and accept it willingly.