US missiles hit Pakistan village

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2008/10/2008101672724503831.html

On the 16Th of October, the United States fired missiles to a village in South Waziristan, Pakistan. South Waziristan is one of the northern provinces in Pakistan which are essentially autonomous, and the United States and NATO believe is the safe harbor for supporters of Al Qaeda and the Taliban. The United States also maintains the belief that Osama Bin Laden could be potentially in hiding within the mountainous north western provinces. United States missile attacks in Pakistan create extreme tension within the Pakistani domestic political scene. Moderates do not want to appear to be condoning U.S attacks in Pakistan, nor do they support the vigilantism exerted by militants within those provinces.

The Muslim parties use such attacks as evidence the secular, moderate central government is incapable of protecting Pakistan's sovereignty. According to Haqqani, " the Islamist worldview has become incompatible with the vision of modern Pakistan, the violent vigilantism of some Islamists has become a serious threat to Pakistan civil society and also promoted sectarian terrorism. Operating outside the rule of law, the Islamists have potential to disrupt the conduct of foreign policy especially in the view of their support for anti-India militants in Kashmir and the Taliban in Afghanistan". These groups have also been used as tools by the secularists as a means to create the atmosphere of a political zero sum game. For example, in Musharraf's reign, Musharraf had banned the PPP and the PML-N thus allowing the Muslim parties seize their personal record of seats, 11%, of the total parliament. The central government wants to portray to the Pakistani nation that their choice is between the central secular government and the extremists. Completely disregarding the remaining diverse field of political ideologies.