Defeating terror
The Pakistani army has gotten more serious about ending domestic terrorism, writes The Economist. “The army insists it no longer makes any distinction between “good” terrorists who confine their attacks to Afghanistan or India, and “bad” ones who target Pakistan. As part of a new military campaign launched last year, the army has stepped up its counter-terrorism efforts across FATA. In 2017 it carried out 164 “intelligence-led operations” targeting jihadists within the country, especially the Pakistani arm of the Taliban, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). But not, it would seem, the Haqqanis.”
“The army’s pounding of the insurgents has had an effect. According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal, a website that monitors terrorism across the region, civilian deaths from extremist attacks in Pakistan have dropped from over 3,000 in 2013 to 540 last year. The figure is on track to fall again this year, with just 24 deaths so far.”
Apart from the Pakistani civilians caught in the crossfire, a major beneficiary from this campaign is the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
“China is investing over $60bn to upgrade Pakistan’s neglected infrastructure. New roads, railways, much-needed power stations and a deep-water commercial port at Gwadar in Balochistan are all part of the plan, which would link western China with the Arabian Sea. The projects could account for 20% of Pakistan’s GDP over the next five years and boost economic growth by three percentage points.”
The Economist writes that it is hard to “imagine China seeing the projects through”, unless security is improved. “The army’s sprawling commercial empire provides a further encouragement to tame lawlessness. The top brass are well aware of the business opportunities CPEC presents both for the country and for itself.” If it takes Chinese investment for Pakistan to clamp down on domestic terrorism, then so be it, for the sake of stability in the country.
Russia’s hand in Syria
“Putin is getting away with murder in Syria” screams the headline of the Washington Post editorial. “Once again the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad is conducting a brutal and criminal offensive against its own population, with the support of Russia and Iran,” the paper editorialises. Eastern Ghouta has been under fire for some time now, and casualties have intensified.
“This latest Syrian atrocity has been made possible, like so many before it, by Vladimir Putin. The Russian military is backing the Ghouta offensive, and Russian diplomats ensured that the Security Council resolution meant to stop it was held up for several days, then laced with loopholes providing a pretext for the slaughter to continue. On Monday, Mr. Putin offered, instead of the cease-fire, a daily “humanitarian pause” to allow the evacuation of civilians and entry of aid. Moscow said it would begin on Tuesday, but — to the surprise of virtually no one — no such action was taken. Instead, the assault goes on.”
“Russia has suffered several recent reverses in Syria: not just the bloody nose on the Euphrates but the collapse of a unilateral attempt to broker a peace settlement outside the long-standing U.N. diplomatic process. Yet Mr. Putin does not appear chastened. Now he is openly defying the Security Council while helping the Assad regime to overrun a region populated by 390,000 people by bombing hospitals and deploying chemical weapons. He shows no interest in the U.N. negotiations, which call for the formation of a new Syrian government acceptable to all sides, followed by free elections.”
“After months of hesitation, the Trump administration recently outlined a policy for Syria that supports the U.N. process and calls for eliminating terrorist groups; officials say U.S. troops will remain in the country, which provides Washington with some diplomatic leverage. But Mr. Putin eschews cooperation with Washington. Instead, he is doing his best to bluff and intimidate President Trump into ordering a withdrawal. In the absence of a firm U.S. response to its latest outrages — and so far there is no sign of one — the Kremlin is unlikely to change course.”
The EU vs. Poland
Right-wing forces have taken over with Poland since the nationalist Law and Justice party came to power in 2015. Since then, courts have come under political control, free speech has been hampered, and suggesting that Poland was complicit in the Holocaust has become criminal. “Behind these moves runs a concerted and dangerous rewriting of history to create a narrative of heroic Polish victimhood — under the Nazis and Communists, of course, but also as a maligned defender of traditional values against a degenerate and controlling European Union,” editorialises the New York Times.
Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the leader of the Law and Justice party, built his image around resisting the European Union, and its efforts to “dictate cosmopolitan cultural terms.”
“There has always been a dollop of victimhood in the Polish national narrative, largely for sound reasons, given Poland’s history of partitions. But for Mr. Kaczynski — as for some other populist leaders in Eastern and Central Europe, most notably Hungary — the purpose of rewriting history in this way is to gain power.”
“In fact, what the Polish government is doing is eroding democracy, and Europe must do what it can to defend its founding principles of “democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights.” The union has already taken the unprecedented step of warning Warsaw that it could lose its voting rights in the organization if it carries on.”