Twirp : Terrorist Wahabi Islamic Republic Pakistan

[Guest]

<b>Pakistan living on the edge</b> -KPS Gill
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->But this is, in fact, far from the Pakistani reality. The Pakistan Army has certainly taken something of a beating over the past over a year -- and particularly after the Lal Masjid assault in July 2007 -- but its collapse is far from imminent. Indeed, despite the recurrence of jihadi violence in the shape of a rising number of frontal attacks in the Waziristan Agencies and the North-West Frontier Province, and the bombings and suicide attacks in other areas as well, including some at the very heart of the Army's power in Islamabad and Rawalpindi, the crisis appears far more acute from a distance than it would be on the ground. This is the case despite credible reports of significant demoralisation and rising dissensions in the lower ranks in the Army, and a number of incidents, such as the 'surrender' of more than 300 troops to a gang of some 20-odd Taliban in August 2007, that will deeply embarrass the Army command and President Pervez Musharraf. Such incidents are, no doubt, the more incomprehensible and disgraceful in a situation in which the Army has virtually been deified over the entire period of the country's existence. They are not, <b>however, an accurate index of the projected 'collapse' of the Army's power in Pakistan.</b>

Indeed, notwithstanding the seriousness of each of these incidents, or of their cumulative impact, the real crisis in Pakistan is not the psychological and physical havoc each such attack, bombing or debacle provokes. <b>Pakistan's real crises are, on the one hand, the steady erosion of the Army's moral authority and the systematic and unprecedented challenge that is being raised from jihadi ranks in the country and, on the other, the Army's sustained and devastating, albeit gradual, assault against the institutions of civil and democratic governance in the country.</b>
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