Why hasn’t the U.S. gone after Mullah Omar in Pakistan? | McClatchy Washington Bureau

Flickr photo by Michael Foley used under a Creative Commons license. Recently, President Karzai publically offered Mullah Omar a guarantee of safety if he entered into peaceful negotiations with the government.  He shocked many in Washington and immediately drew criticism about the real motives behind his statement.  With presidential elections only a year away, there may be some political advantage behind this bold move.  Irrespective of what his motive may be, the resurgent shadow of Mullah Omar and the Taliban over Afghanistan begs the question, why hasn’t the U.S. been able to deal with the one-eyed Taliban leader? In his article, "Why hasn't the U.S. gone after Mullah Omar in Pakistan?," journalist Jonathan Landay explains that the Bush administration has “done almost nothing to hunt down the Afghan Taliban leadership in its sanctuaries in Pakistan.”  That is why Mullah Omar and his gang of Taliban fighters have been able to rearm, regroup, and escalate the war against U.S. and Afghan government forces from the tribal region of Pakistan. Many U.S. and NATO officials have expressed their misgivings about U.S. commitment to pressure Pakistan into defeating al Qaida and the Taliban once and for all.  From his stronghold in Quetta, the provincial capital of Baluchistan, Mullah Omar is believed to direct the insurgency and control opium drug trafficking, which provides the Taliban with funding for its operations.  A senior U.S. administration official rationalized that arresting Omar and his deputies is a logistical challenge Pakistan does not have the capacity to assume and may fuel unrest in the region.  President-elect Obama has pledged increased support to stabilizing Pakistan and ending the war in Afghanistan.  Experts agree Afghanistan cannot be won unless Pakistani forces are able to infiltrate safe-havens and curb lawlessness in ungoverned spaces along the tribal belt with Afghanistan.