Swat used to offer some of the finest skiing in Asia. The season is now over, and is unlikely to return. The Taleban have taken over. They have shut hundreds of schools and, by some accounts, torn many of them down. They have banned the public playing of music and put up posters in barber’s shops warning men not to shave. On Wednesday, Taleban fighters pressed home their advantage by flooding the town of Buner, south of Swat, wrecking aid agencies’ offices and occupying those of the local government. Yesterday the Pakistani Frontier Constabulary responded by sending some 300 troops to the region, but they are outnumbered by up to 8,000 armed Islamist radicals. Buner is 65 miles from Islamabad.<\/p>\n
As the Taleban took Buner, Hillary Clinton told a congressional committee in Washington that Pakistan faces \u201can existential threat\u201d\u009d. She is right. Sharia is now the law across much of the country’s mountainous north west. Its enforcers control most of the region’s hearts and minds – and territory. In doing so they pass devastating judgment on the fecklessness of President Zardari and his bewildered young Government, which last week explicitly surrendered jurisdiction over Swat in a deal with its new overlords.<\/p>\n
The last time that England was in a position comparable to Pakistan’s was in 1644…<\/p>\n