After the massacre of 132 children Tuesday at a military-run school in Peshawar, no Pakistani should be under any illusions about the nature of the so-called Pakistani Taliban. Leaders across the political spectrum, including some who have in the past called for negotiations with the militants, have expressed horror at the killings.
Focusing solely on that despicable group, however, won't make future generations of Pakistani children safe.
In one terrible sense, Tuesday's attack showed that the army's six-month-old campaign to root out militants from their stronghold in North Waziristan is having an impact. Clearly, there's no option but to press on.
Yet it remains debatable whether military action alone can defeat terrorism in Pakistan. Taliban fighters have already spread far beyond the tribal areas to Karachi and other cities, and may even have infiltrated the lower ranks of the military.
Gen. Raheel Sharif, chief of Pakistan's army, has declared that his troops are going after all militants "without any exception," but it's still unclear that the military has truly abandoned its long-time distinction between "good Taliban"--proxy groups, including the Haqqani network and Lashkar-e-Taiba, that direct their fire against targets in Afghanistan and India--and "bad Taliban" that terrorize Pakistan.
Even as Pakistan's top brass insist they know that jihadis represent the country's biggest threat, they have hardly softened their attitude toward India. The military has brushed back tentative moves by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif toward a rapprochement with Delhi. The generals still see groups like Lashkar as weapons in any potential conflict on the subcontinent.
Editorial on 12/18/2014