Class Warfare in the Swat Valley

The lead article in today’s New York Times was titled, “Economic Pillar in Pakistan Area is Among Missing.” It describes the failure of landlords in the Swat Valley to return to their homes after the Pakistani Army fought to expel the Taliban.

Apparently, despite the success of the Pakistani Army in battles around the major towns, the landlords do not feel secure about returning home. The police force and medical services are non-existent, and the Taliban are continuing a policy of burning down landlord homes and kidnapping them. When the landlords flee, the Taliban redistribute their holdings to the peasants. While the Pakistani military claims that 478,000 people have returned after the fighting, there is no independent verification of the statistic.

In my opinion, this does not bode well for the Pakistani government. The Taliban are creating a constituency of peasants who support them after benefiting from this redistribution of wealth. The top Taliban leadership has been unaffected by the fighting, and they can now recruit liberally from the population base of the region. All they need to do is outwait the Pakistani Army as the Army is overextended on its other border with India.

In addition, there is support for the militant ideology throughout the governmental and intelligence structures of the nation, and the fight against the Taliban is still stained with an image as a proxy war on behalf of the United States. Plus, as long as the Taliban, and Al Qaeda, have a safe haven in Pakistan, the fighting in Afghanistan will be of no avail.