The largest obstacle facing the NATO troops in Afghanistan is Pakistan. Afghanistan’s most volatile area is its porous northeastern border with Pakistan because the mountainous terrain prohibits enforcement of a secure border between the two countries. This terrain also provides safe breeding ground for the terrorist organizations forced to relocate. Osama bin Laden hid in this area following the Taliban’s removal from serious control of the country after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
On the other side of the border, Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) contains poor ethnic tribes which the Pakistani government was incapable of assimilating into its semi-regulated society. The Pashtun ethnic group claims most of the land surrounding the border, and as a result the Pashtun people are heavily recruited by Islamic extremist groups utilizing the FATA area, as it’s out of the NATO troops’ jurisdiction. Thomas Johnson, Research Professor in the Department of National Security Affairs and Director of the Program for Culture and Conflict Studies at the Naval Postgraduate School, and M. Chris Mason, Senior Fellow at the Center for Advanced Defense Studies and a previous political officer on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, wrote in their report “No Sign until the Burst of Fire” that “…the Pashtun borderlands have become a safe haven for the Taliban and other insurgent and terrorist elements.” The Taliban isn’t the only radical group hiding in the region; pockets of Al-Qaeda splinter cells are also purported to inhabit the FATA.
The Pashtun people are largely uneducated and widely impoverished, key factors targeted by jihad-minded extremist recruiters, and their efforts have proven successful. Johnson and Mason write that “extremism has spread across the Pashtun belt, and Pashtun tribal areas in both Pakistan and Afghanistan are increasingly falling under the de facto political control of the extremists.” As a result of this inculcation, the number of extremist attacks in Afghanistan is increasing. The recent attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul killed over 40 civilians and increased already strained political tensions between Afghani and Pakistani officials. Civilians aren’t the only targets—an attack on a U.S. military outpost close to the border on Sunday killed 9 U.S. troops. Afghanistan’s monthly casualty average from January to April 2008 was at about 14. A marked increase in casualties occurred in May with 24 deaths and in June with 45, according to the DoD-confirmed casualty count on iCasualties.org. Currently for the month of July the casualty count is at 19.
Pakistan’s continued negligence to address the FATA problem on their side of the border dangerously undermines the work of the NATO troops in Afghanistan. With dozens of shadowy foothills and unmarked paths available in the mountainous passes, extremists and insurgents easily slip through the border undetected, finding safe haven in Pakistan and finding NATO targets in Afghanistan. Until the border problem is solved, the NATO troops will struggle to completely quell the extremist attacks; until Pakistan handles the FATA lands and Pashtun people, America’s dangerous extremist enemies with have a large source of new recruits and a place to call their home.
Rachel Paulk is an intern at the American Journalism Center, a training program run by Accuracy in Media and Accuracy in Academia.
