A battlefield visit to the Swat Valley of Pakistan’s war against the Taliban left “one indelible image” upon David Ignatius of the Washington Post — “of a teenage boy’s beaming smile of relief.” The traumatized boy was a symbol of what a successful counterinsurgency campaign is all about: He had been in training to become a suicide bomber; now he is being rehabilitated after being reunited with his family.
The Swat campaign shows how the Pakistanis finally got it right after years of mishandling the Taliban’s rise here. “We told our majors and captains, ‘People should fall in love with you,’ ” explains the Pakistani commander.