Taliban Rules Swat

What is to become of a country armed with nuclear weapons that is wracked with poverty - where corruption is endemic and day by day it seems the forces democracy are not winning?

Today in Swat, a beautiful province 80 miles or so north of Islamabad, the resurgent Taliban has convinced Pakistani officials to allow them to apply strict Sharia laws. Any sense of secularism in Swat will now be history.

The Taliban says don't get your hair cut. You best not. The Taliban says women can't come to market. Well, they risk death.

The Taliban has basically won government approval for what they've been doing on their own for months. Every Friday, Taliban broadcasters would inform locals about what they could and couldn't do. Those who refused were often killed - including dozens of local police.

That Pakistan has allowed this shows it has little or no control of what happens inside its own borders. Not good.

By Harry Smith