Working as a corporate lawyer does not necessarily make one unqualified for voicing opinion on anything.
You could have disagreed with his opinion without calling him a shill. He wasnt defending his employer here so bringing that up was in bad taste and did nothing to add to your argument except showing that you have a preconceived dislike towards the author which again is totally fine if you had brought it up in context of an article on the EOBI scam.
I have usually voiced my differences of how the military operates as a parrellel entity beyond the general writ of state however they do not defy the state in the same way the TTP is doing. There isnt even a slim chance of a cantt. commander proclaiming statehood separate from Pakistan while the TTP can eventually make that claim if the writ of the state erodes further.
These are people who will not respond to negotiations or peaceful terms, these are people who are not driven by ideology but lust for power and control which cannot be paid off and bought with a peace deal unless the peace deal includes enough power and control that the eventual writ of state is only left as a byline.
Your critique did not include how you propose this growing problem should be tackled as opposed to twhat the 'corporate shill' was trying to say through his article i.e. total war or total surrender?
Firstly Him being a corporate schill (Of EOBI, DHA related Military owned intrest his firm AJURIS mostly represents and CNG lobby incidently a year or so back) is important as his writing are mostly agenda driven.
Dissecting this agenda out from his wordplay is important. As in reality he has little of substance to say.
His imaginative TTP a monolithic, undefeatable malevolent force that has Pakistan on its knees, is a product of his imagination fed by hysteria of the other clowns that are employed in Pakistan journalistic circles. Its not worth discussing as its make belief.
He does not even realises that Pakistan Army is already deployed in NWA. Its not as un accessible as he makes it. But what he advocates will most certainly make it exactly that.
The problem is this hack can neither speak Pashto. Lack even basic knowledge of the history, cultural, ethnography of that area but some how is convinced (Like much of our pathetic English speaking Intelligentsia) they have some unique insights to add to a situation by regurgitating a slightly different permutation of received "opinion"
Here is a previous attempt at discussing defense related issues by this certified hack that was discussed in some detail right here.
http://www.siasat.pk/forum/showthread.php?147947-5th-Generation-War-in-Pakistan-by-Babar-Sattar
Unfortunately our English press (DAWN,DT,FTET) panders exclusively to this narrow clique of morons and has inflated their egos and belief in their own faculties to a rather ridiculous extent.
TTP in actual is more splintered then other. Has lost both geographic and ideological space, Tribal dynamics means its cornered. Relationship over the border has soured.It can only become an existential threat if we chose to make it so.
Then you come up with the tired "we dont negotiate with terrorists" tripe. Really since when? Hasn't a certain MQM not been in govt for 30 yr? Isnt Hafiz Saeed still giving Eid Khutbas. Why this fascination of multiplying our enemies? Should the Army break deals with armed groups that allowed it access into SWA and NWA and fight them for this? What will that achieve?
Does America, Israel, UK subscribe to this unique dictum? How can we generate such Hubris given we should have learnt the lessons of blow back?
What has 10 yr of nearly continuous war given you? How many of your relatives serving in the Military? Have you ever seen what a 120 mm mortar shell do to human body? Ever smelt how a burn ward smells like? Any idea of what people of FATA and KPK are going through?
I hope the day doesn't come when Punjab has to go through such a similar situation. Lets see how gung ho you people are then.
But I am afraid our lets be frank Punjabi Military and its various cheerleaders have to learn a lesson one day or the other before they run the country of a cliff.
The war in NWA a longstanding demand of many stakeholders (US Mil. more hawkish sections of the Military establishment, some sections of the hawkish English press). As the argument for such an adventure is tactically weak they have to come up with new and more far fetched mental gymnastics to accommodate this folly. For e.g how in end of PPP era they tried with avenging Malala angle which did not pan out.
(If you want to into the genesis of what is actually behind all this about I can direct you to the work of Neo con Scholar Cheryl Bernard and Zalmay Khalil zad who in 2002 knew that the Afghan war had to "pushed: into Pakistan. And "Pakistani" Army and state made to accept responsibility nad make it their war. Sounds familiar?)
Next to this you should have moved on from the revelation that Babar sattar is indeed a schill and a hack and read the rest of the post you would have come up with a much better post (on the more interesting issue of sovereignty Mr Sattar stumbled into) and I could have responded to something with more substance. And had a meaningful conversation.
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