Afghan War: Talk about the "fog of war"...

There aren't a lot of Western reporters who speak Pashto or Urdu. So genuinely first-hand reporting in the wilds of Pashtun country in Afghanistan and Pakistan is virtually unavailable to us Western readers.

But the reporting we do get on the US-British-Pakistani spring offensive (or is it the pre-offensive?) provides some intriguing and scary glimpses of what's happening. For instance, Tribes provoked over border hunt San Francisco Chronicle 03/10/04 on the current operations in the Pakistani province of Waziristan discreetly omits any mention of the US and British forces. It says "Pakistani regular and paramilitary troops" are "the first soldiers to enter unopposed in hundreds of years" in that particular area.

But that compliance wasn't exactly voluntary. "It took thinly veiled threats by the government that a refusal to comply with hosue-to-house searches and the stationing of troops in area towns would lead to bombings by U.S. forces for the tribes to consent to the current more intrusive presence." And look carefully the following excerpt, which raises all kinds of questions, from practical effectiveness to legality (my emphasis):

Two weeks ago hundreds of Pakistani commandos descended on three villages in South Waziristan, demolishing homes and arresting 25 people. Then last weekend, troops opened fire on a vehicle near an army checkpoint, killing 13 and wounding six. President Pervez Musharraf has ordered an inquiry into allegations that the deceased were civilians. ...

Forty-eight hours after the checkpoint incident, the government levied a $95,000 fine on the local Ahmedzai tribe for failing to stop intermittent rocket attacks on army check posts, using an 1860s law of collective responsibility to punish them en masse. ...

So far, the government's carrot-and-stick approach, similar to that employed by U.S. officials dealing with local warlords and landowners in Afghanistan, has failed to produce any high-profile arrests. Of the nearly 100 people detained so far, none has been a high-ranking Taliban or al Qaeda member.