The high level security meeting in the President House on February 13, presided over jointly by President Zardari and PM Gilani; reviewed the security situation in the country and ended up with the decision to continue the military operations in Swat and the tribal areas. This deafening silence in the meeting about the exceptionally high collateral damages and the displacement of the people on such a massive scale together with the complete suppression of what PM Gilani or the ANP leader Asfandyar Wali had to say makes the very proceedings of the meetings and the objective underlying it exceedingly suspect. The proceeding said that the participants in the meeting were of the view that the government had no other choice but to root out the terrorists. How far was this view shared by Gilani and Asfandyar is not at all clear. The former has been publicly saying that the military operation cannot be the only or the final solution and Asfandyar is on record of having said that he was prepared to talk even to those who had attacked him. These refreshingly conciliatory attitude towards the militants by the crucially most important participants in the meeting is not at all reflected in the decision to continue with the military operations in the tribal areas. But what the militants in the Swat have been demanding is the enforcement of the Sharia and withdrawal of Pakistan from the War On Terror as according to them this is War was not against terror but against Islam. Pakistan, as laid in its constitution, has been brought into being in order to enable the Muslims in the country to ordain their lives in accordance with the teachings of the Holy Quran and Sunnah and that according to its constitution no law repugnant to Islam could be passed. Historically Sharia has been in force in Malakand and Swat even before the creation of Pakistan. In Swat Sharia law continued to remain enforced even after the creation of Pakistan till the time it was merged with the rest of Pakistan. It is matter of record about which the people of Swat bear witness that while Sharia was in force there was little crime and peace and tranquillity prevailed. The provincial government has already recommended the enforcement of the Sharia in the tribal areas. However the agreement between the provincial government and Maulana Sufi Muhammad for the enforcement of Sharia in Swat is a good step. It is therefore clear that by demanding the enforcement of Sharia the people of Swat and the tribal area far from imposing their own agenda they have been only trying to revive and resurrect the noble cause for which Pakistan was created. Coming to their second most urgent demand namely that the government should walk out of the US War which in fact is war on Islam; one can do no better than to quote Kissinger who has himself declared that it was a misnomer to call the ongoing war as a War On Terror. In fact he said it is a war the West is waging against radical Islam. When asked what he meant by radical Islam he replied: "...that Islam which is not secular." Daniel Pipes a celebrated writer in the US said: "The main goal of the War On Terror is to reform Islam into a modern moderate and pro-American religion." All this makes it clear that the US on the pretext of fighting terror is in fact waging a war on Islam. Obama said that he would defeat militancy with the help of Zardari. Mind you Obama did not say he would defeat the militancy with the help of the people of Pakistan. The president it seems in response to this, no matter what the people think about it prevailed upon the meeting to decide in favour of continuing the military operations which is not supported by the people. The writer is a freelance columnist