<img height="1" width="1" style="display:none" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=192888919167017&amp;ev=PageView&amp;noscript=1">
Monday, March 18, 2024
March 18, 2024

Linkedin Pinterest

In Our View: Slaughter of Innocents

Pakistani Taliban's massacre of students grim reminder of terrorism's global threat

The Columbian
Published:

To a civilized mind, the depravity of the act is difficult to comprehend.

When Taliban militants in Pakistan, intent upon establishing a Muslim caliphate in their country, attacked a school last week and executed more than 130 children, the resultant global outrage was warranted. Even the Taliban in Afghanistan denounced the actions of their Pakistani brethren, failing to note their own contributions to the cultural climate that helped set the stage for such a sickening outcome.

While details are still being sorted out and the magnitude of the horror is still being processed, the massacre serves as a reminder of the resolve that is necessary to protect Americans and American interests both here and abroad.

This is not the first noteworthy attack on the part of the Pakistani Taliban. It is the same group that laid siege to the international airport in Karachi in June, fighting security forces for hours and killing 13 people. It is the same group that last year sent suicide bombers to the All Saints Church in Peshawar, a historic symbol of cooperation between Muslims and Christians. And, most infamously, it is the same group that targeted Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai in 2012 for advocating educational opportunities for girls. Yousafzai survived a gunshot to the head, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and has become a global spokeswoman for women’s rights.

Along the way, Yousafzai also has become a symbol of the level of tyranny that is the intent of the Taliban, an Islamic fundamentalist movement that ruled Afghanistan from 1996 until 2001, when it was overthrown by a post-9/11 invasion from American forces. It has remained a terrorist organization since then, launching attacks driven by its distorted interpretation of Islamic teachings. In the wake of last week’s massacre, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said, “The nation needs to get united and face terrorism. We need unflinching resolve against the plague.” The importance of this is amplified by the fact that Pakistan is a nuclear power.

As The New York Times wrote editorially, “Wedded to an outmoded vision of India as the mortal enemy, the army has long played a double-game, taking American aid while supporting and exploiting various Taliban groups as a hedge against India and Afghanistan, and ignoring the peril that the militants have come to pose to Pakistan itself.”

Not that the Taliban is the only militant Islamic group that sees attacks upon children as a means to their desired end. In September 2004, an attack by mostly Chechen separatists led to a three-day siege upon a school in Beslan, Russia, resulting in the deaths of 186 children. In April, the group Boko Haram kidnapped 276 girls from a school in Nigeria.

All of which should help inform American foreign policy. Suggesting that the United States can effectively eliminate with such depravity — through military, diplomatic, or economic means — would be overly naive. U.S. forces have spent more than a decade in Afghanistan, but stability for the region remains elusive. Yet it is essential that American policymakers and the American public view the Pakistani school attack as a reminder of the mentality that drives the extremists. An attack upon defenseless schoolchildren demonstrates a cowardice that violates the teachings of their religion and the tenents of their own humanity.

It also serves as a reminder of the need for diligence at home. Such an attack is difficult for a civilized mind to comprehend, yet we would be foolish to ignore it.

Loading...