22/02/2009

Now that the Taliban have smashed their way down the Swat Valley, disrupting the lives of their reasonably-liberated inhabitants, and cutting off the fastnesses of Pakistan from Western, money-dispensing tourists, we hear that the government of Pakistan is talking about a permanent truce.

This is nothing short of appeasement.

I am surprised that a nation and region with such a tumultuous history can be so naïve as to imagine that the Taliban will lie down and be peacefully content with one miserable prize.

It is axiomatic that you do not negotiate with fanatics; you destroy their ability to function.

It all reminds me of the British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, who returned to Britain in 1938 from a visit to Germany and Herr Adolf Hitler, waving a piece of paper guaranteeing that Germany and Britain would never go to war again, babbling about “peace in our time”.

But Hitler had no intention of ever giving Europe peace, unless it became part of his Third Kingdom. It was only a year later when Hitler’s duplicity became apparent, and Chamberlain resigned, joining Churchill’s War Cabinet.

The Taliban will not rest until all of the Middle East, even the world, comes under the rule of Sharia law. And every Muslim who is serious about following the way of Islam is only a step from becoming a Sharia fanatic.