Soldiers of Pakistan's paramilitary force patrol in troubled Buner in Pakistan on Monday, May 11, 2009. Pakistan's army estimates that 1.3 million people have fled fighting in the country's northwest since August, official said. (AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad)From CQ Politics/Spytalk:
A retired Pakistani general confided a deep worry to a friend in Washington last week: that some young officers in Pakistan's regular army have become increasingly sympathetic over the past few years to the Taliban and their brand of radical Islam.
While he had no numbers or percentages of officers sympathetic to the Taliban, the possibility of any defections raises questions about the reliability of these officers during any sort of push against the Taliban by the Pakistani army.
Concern over the reliability of Pakistan's officer corps has heretofore focused on the ISI, or Inter-Services Intelligence service, which was wedded to CIA-backed fundamentalist Afghan rebels fighting to oust the Soviet Red Army during the 1980s. A faction of ISI officers is said to remain loyal to the fundamentalists.
Read more ....
My Comment: Many of these young officers were educated in madrasas and religious schools. Years of Islamic education is now having their impact.