In spite of the terrorist attack on GOC Swat and CO 33 Baloch, most people are still talking about peace talks with the Taliban. These people are ignorant about the history. Liddell Hart wrote in his book that "We never learn from History". In two hundred years, no government has ever been able to subdue the insurgents through dialogue, previous governments subdued the insurgents first through force then talk, then they started making them part of the power sharing formula. In the recent history the British first defeated the insurgents and then they talked to them to decide about the future. Similarly in Ireland after 80 years of counter insurgency the British Army first defeated the insurgents and then sat down for peace talks. Dialogue can only be successful if it is held from a position of strength. It is most unfortunate that none of our leaders have condemned the Taliban, who carried out the attacks. It is high time Pakistan Army took a serious view and conducts an operation to bring the culprits to justice. These insurgents must be treated as criminals as paid in the same coin. We need to stand united to fight this menace otherwise there will be no Pakistan? It is time we stopped being apologetic about Army Operations against the insurgents.
LT COL SHAHBAZ THUTHAAL (RETD),
Lahore, September 23.