Upon reading this blog post about the situation in the Tribal Areas of Pakistan I think Obama's anti-terror job may be getting easier.
Pakistani officials believe that the multimillion dollar rewards on bin Laden and other al Qaeda leaders may now be practical. You can't capture an al Qaeda big shot without the assent of local tribal leaders. For a large chunk of that reward, that assent may now be had from some chiefs, and bin Laden knows it. He also knows that eight senior al Qaeda leaders have been killed by U.S. Hellfire missiles in the last six months. Rumor has it that big money was paid for the information that made some of these attacks possible. It's bad enough that al Qaeda is losing senior people, it's worse that they are now seen, by local tribesmen, as a way to get rich. Al Qaeda leaders now know what it's like to be terrorized.
Who could blame those tribal leaders? I mean they are taking in these Arab and Central Asian terrorists that have no history with the Pashtun people and protecting them pretty much for no shared purpose. Then all they get in return is a chance for Pakistani troops to blow them up.
Most people would have sold Al-Quida down the river in exchange for a chunk of cash and a peaceful existence away from interference from Islamabad. And that may well be what is happening. Too bad we couldn't sway more of these tribal leaders to play ball with us in exchange for financial aid, security guarantees, or whatever they might want.
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