A military approach never brings durable peace, Pakistan embassy spokesman Akram Shaheedi wrote in a letter on the Wazirisitan situation, published by USA Today. The official wrote, “Pakistan stands committed to fight terrorism in all forms because doing so is in its own national interest. Indeed, during counterterrorism operations, Pakistan has done more and has also suffered more in terms of causalities of troops and civilians. Pakistan has killed and arrested more Taliban and Al Qaeda terrorists than any other country. Pakistan has deployed 80,000 troops in areas that are much smaller than Afghanistan.”
Shaheedi noted that there were only about 40,000 coalition forces in all of Afghanistan and that numerical limitation provided enough space for the Taliban to carry out its activities inside Afghanistan with a degree of impunity. |