Another day, another blast

EDITORIAL:
THE NEWS



There is no longer anything unexpected about the terrorist attacks ripping through our country. The suicide attack near Attock and the Peshawar car-bomb blast on Friday cause us pain, anger and grief over the lives lost and misery felt, but not surprise. The military now tops the list of targets. The suicide bomber who struck the check post at the Kamra Aeronautical Complex near Attock was clearly hoping to claim the lives of as many men in uniform as possible. Two PAF personnel were among the seven killed. The Pakistan military have themselves become the hunted; their enemies can, it seems, strike anywhere and at anytime. In response to the operation in South Waziristan the ferocity of the attacks has been stepped up. But perhaps the latest rounds of bombings have a positive dimension. They help lay out in the starkest terms the contours of the war we are fighting. This is a war for survival; it pitches the state of Pakistan and all those who represent it against people who seek its destruction. There no room for ambiguity and no possibility of merely sitting on the fence.

There is reason to believe it is this sense of divide, the doubt over whether or not the Taliban were our real enemies, that allowed them over the past decade to grow in number and strength. We failed to go after them when the task could have been far more easily accomplished than is the case now. We were swayed in our resolve by those who insisted the militants presented no real threat; even that they were essentially good men and that our real fight lay with the US. We are now paying the price for holding such beliefs and for allowing them to shape policy. The elements within the establishment who propounded this point of view have a great deal to answer for. They can now make amends only by doing all that is possible to eliminate a ruthless enemy, before it destroys our nation and all that is good within it.