A mother mourns her son Mohammed Ali Khan, 15, a student who was killed during an attack by Taliban gunmen on the Army Public School, at her house in Peshawar December 16, 2014.
Credit: REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra
Pakistan’s Dance With Terrorists Just Backfired and Killed 132 Children -- Chris Allbritton, Daily Beast
For decades, Pakistan’s generals have treated jihadi groups as assets to use against India. That policy didn’t protect their very own children.
Today’s horrific attack in Peshawar on a military school, in which scores of children were killed by the Pakistani Taliban, should put Pakistan’s security choices over the last few decades in a stark light. And while the immediate reaction from the Pakistani military will no doubt be swift and terrible, Pakistan needs to think long and hard about what kind of country it wants to be when the initial retaliation is over.
Will it be one that continues to treat extremist groups as assets to use against its regional rivals? Or will this stomach-churning attack finally be the last straw that convinces the “establishment,” as it’s called, that playing with the fire of Islamic radicalism cannot continue.
Read more ....
Update: How Pakistan's Great Game in Afghanistan Gets Kids Killed at Home -- Tom Lasseter and Natalie Obiko Pearson, Bloomberg
My Comment: Regular readers of this blog know that I have never been a fan of Pakistan's "secret policy" of supporting certain extremist groups that have been waging war against the Afghan government and U.S./NATO forces for the past decade. The discovery of Bin Laden hiding in Pakistan was the final nail in the coffin (for me) that Pakistan was (and is) no longer a reliable ally. I also knew that if you dance with the devil you will get burned .... so yesterday's school massacre was not a surprise .... when you permit maniacs to operate in your country to wage mayhem in neighboring countries .... they will eventually target you.