Rossputin.com: Rational Thinking About Our World

re "Siege mosque cleric vows to fight to death" (Times UK online, 7/6/07)
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article2036778.ece

If Pakistani cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi and his radical followers are ready for martyrdom, it is quite tempting to assist him and his “students” in realizing their wish. The benefit of such assistance is obvious: Eliminate dozens or hundreds of Islamist fanatics whose future at best would likely include their trying to overthrow the mostly secular government of Pakistan and replace it with a Pakistani version of the Taliban, or at worst a new crop of terrorists and suicide bombers. The current situation, having them all in one place, could be considered the anti-terror version of a “roach motel”. Islamofascists go in but they don’t come out.

The only important risk from the point of view of the West is whether such an action would weaken an already weak President Musharraf. Musharraf is no saint, but in terms of the worldwide fight against radical Islam, he’s as good as we’re going to get in this absolutely critical part of the world. An apparent massacre of “students” would probably not help his position. Therefore, while I would love to see the “roach motel” strategy implemented, a better course of action is probably for the government to lay siege to the Red Mosque and essentially starve them out while taking the opportunity to eliminate any armed “student” who pops his head up.