Pakistani military needs to rethink counterinsurgency strategy

Imagine for a moment that the United States had used a different military tactic to drive militants out of Baghdad during the "surge" last year. Instead of pursuing Gen. David Petraeus' counterinsurgency strategy, the military had ringed the city with heavy artillery and fired at will to drive the insurgents out, while advanced fighter jets and helicopter gunships fired hundreds of missiles into residential areas.

Imagine the carnage. You can picture many thousands of residents fleeing the city. No military would pursue a brutal and foolhardy strategy like that, right?

Think again. That's exactly how the Pakistani army is fighting the Taliban in the Swat Valley and surrounding communities. That's why Pakistan's government reported on Tuesday that more than 1 million residents of the areas under attack have run for their lives since the offensive began last week. Antonio Guterres, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees, declared a refugee crisis in Pakistan and described the situation as "a huge and rapidly unfolding emergency, which is going to require considerable resources beyond those that currently exist in the region."

Pakistani newspapers have offered only scattered reports of civilian casualties; journalists are not allowed into the area. The Dawn, Islamabad's English language paper, noted, for example, that "in Buner district, one minor was killed and another suffered injuries when a mortar shell hit a residence." But the paper also reported the military's claimed body counts.

"At least 44 militants were killed when jet fighters, helicopter gunships and artillery shelled different areas in Swat, Dir and Malakand," the paper reported. So much for counterinsurgency.

Should Americans expect better? Of course. During the Bush administration, the United States spent more than $10 billion to train and equip the military so that it could pursue an aggressive counterinsurgency campaign against the Taliban and al-Qaida in Pakistan's lawless tribal areas. That was money flushed down the drain. As if the Pentagon had not learned a thing, last month the Defense Department announced a new, $3 billion plan to train and equip Pakistan's military.

The money is to be spent on counterinsurgency training and equipment, such as night-vision goggles. Perhaps you saw some of the TV reports from Baghdad last year showing American troops creeping around dangerous street corners in Baghdad at night, looking for insurgents through the greenish screens of their night-vision goggles.

Well, in Pakistan, soldiers would use those expensive American goggles to find their way to the ammunition boxes so they could reload their artillery pieces.