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In this op-ed, Douglas J. Feith and Justin Polin argue that opportunities still exist to sway moderate Pashtuns against extremists by means of strategic communications.
Excerpt: On March 5, in the outskirts of Peshawar, Pakistan, forces believed to be affiliated with the Taliban bombed the shrine of Rahman Baba (born around 1650), the most revered Pashtun poet. The attack evokes one of the grosser Taliban outrages from the pre-9/11 era: the dynamiting in 2001 of the enormous stone Buddhas in Afghanistan's Bamiyan Valley.
This use of bombs as cultural commentary is especially notable in that the shrine was sacred to other Muslims. It reminds the world, and especially complacent Muslims, that the Islamist extremists' war is a civil war within Islam--and not just a "holy war" against other religions and the United States. It should show American policymakers the wisdom of working to persuade Pashtuns to reject the Taliban.