Knight of Rook

Here’s some kind of random thoughts on the Pakistani – Taliban war. (Not yet very well thought out, comments always welcome)

Pakistani army and the Taliban are fighting in a more or less desperate conflict over control of the country. The Taliban is seeking a country controlled by Sharia law and Islamic Fundamentalism. They claim that there is no need for a government because Allah has given them all the law they need in the Quran. The Pakistani government obviously disagrees, and that’s the basis of the war.

The Taliban (although having suffered some setbacks in the last month) are still in a position to win. In an article titled Urban siege in South Asia the writers discuss urban terrorism. John Robb says it right when he says that System Disruption would be more effective in Urban takedowns than conventional terrorism. He’s made the statement before that if the Taliban moved to a strategy of systems disruption (instead of their current blood and guts strategy) it would take down the country in five years. I would like to point out however that abandoning the “blood and guts” of their war would hinder them.

Personally I think the correct strategy would be to mix the two. It inspires people to have conventional guerillas (for lack of a better term) in the field. If the Taliban split of a section of the troops and devoted them to the systems disruption that Robb has pointed out, and if the other forces continued to fight the military and conduct assassinations as well as assaults on undefended positions, they would be nearly unstoppable. When your trying to take over a country, systems disruption compliments the fighting forces not replace them.

Not sure how well I explained all that, still thinking about it in what spare time I have.