Pakistan 2009

I blame journalists. If we didn’t demand numbers, governments wouldn’t have to make them up. How many people have been displaced by the fighting in Pakistan? According to the government, 2,882,642.

MALAKAND, PAKISTAN – In Pakistan they have have a great sense of the continuity of history. These days, local government officials are called district coordination officers or DCOs rather than political agents, but when I visited Malakand yesterday I noted that the sign on the gate still read “Political Agent’s Residence” as it must have…

My Pakistani journalist friend was clear. “This is the first serious effort by the Pakistani army since 9/11 to eliminate the Taliban.” In other words, the military assault to oust the militants from Swat shows that Pakistan’s strategic thinking has changed. An intelligence contact reinforced the point. “It may have been America’s war in the…

LAHORE, PAKISTAN – One of the joys of working in Pakistan is that people here love the media. There are dozens of Pakistani newspapers and TV channels and every other Pakistani, it seems, is – or thinks he is – a journalist. Of course the government – like most governments – wants to restrict or…

MARDAN, PAKISTAN – The Taliban said they would take revenge for the attacks on them in the Swat valley, and they might do it anywhere in Pakistan. It seems they have been as good as their word. This morning, we were in Mardan visiting refugees from the fighting in Swat when we heard about the…