Cafe de Mello

During Barack Obama's campaign for president, his expressed willingness to talk with and perhaps negotiate with enemies of the United States was mislabeled "appeasement." Negotiating with hostile powers to find workable compromises is a rational form of diplomacy. That, however, does not mean letting hostile powers have their way.

Unfortunately, Pakistan's agreement to let the Taliban set up, under their form of Islamic law, a "mini-state in the Swat Valley fits the Webster's New World Dictionary's definition of appeasement—"The policy of giving in to the demands of a hostile or aggressive power in an attempt to keep the peace. It is an example of bowing to true evil.

The Taliban (Students of Islamic Knowledge Movement) came into existence as one of the mujahideen groups fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan, and came into their own as a stabilizing force in Afghanistan after the soviets left. Sadly, along with stability the Taliban brought a medieval, repressive form of Islamic law, which treats women as chattel or worse. Few in Afghanistan mourned the Taliban's leaving when the US routed them in December 2001 (because of their support for al Qaeda), but their move into Pakistan went largely without resistance.

Now the Taliban have become such a strong force inside Pakistan, that the Pakistan government felt they had little choice but to appease them by letting them set up a "mini-state" with Islamic law inside the Swat Valley—once a prime tourist destination—now a region of humanitarian horror.

The horror at the heart of this regime has recently been brought to the Pakistani conscious by a video of a young woman being publically beaten for some offense. Some accounts say this 17-year-old girl walked outside without a man, some say she had an affair, some say she refused to marry a Taliban official. All of that is beside the point. Whether done in public or in private (some Taliban have suggested the only error here was being the girl in public), there can be no justification for this kind of brutality. And this is mild for the Taliban, who are only too happy to beat people to death and behead them for violations of their version of Islamic law.

I can only hope that the outrage it Pakistani people are expressing over the video of this young girl's beating will lead the government into taking more forceful action against the Taliban. Ultimately it must resend its agreement giving them control of the Swat valley and pursue them back into the tribal regions between Pakistan and Afghanistan. And if the US has the opportunity to support the Pakistani government in this endeavor with arms or troops, this must be one of our priorities. We are always at our best when confronting true evil.