The Pakistani Government have expressed their anger after a United States drone strike over Pakistani sovereign territory killed Hakimullah Mehsud, the head of the Pakistani Taliban, on Friday, the day before peace talks were due to begin.
The Pakistani Foreign Office Minister condemned the attack as a deliberate act to derail negotiations. Tensions over illegal drone strikes have increased leading the Government of Pakistan to threaten to stop the forces currently still fighting in Afghanistan using Pakistan’s northern territories as supply routes.
Regardless of US feelings toward an agreed settlement between the Taliban and Pakistan it should not use covert operations to end negotiations. Historically there have been settlements between people who were once considered terrorists. One only has to look at Northern Ireland where Gerry Adams was once the head of the IRA and now serves as a legitimate politician.
The Taliban are not going to submit no matter how many of their numbers are killed by covert methods. It has happened time and time again, in Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt and now in Syria. The governments of the west repeatedly failed to impose their own systems of democracy, which are little more than warlords given legitimacy by corrupt elections with power going to those with the most money……
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