May 30, 2009 | Foreign Affairs
Letter From Mardan: A War of Unintended Consequences
The fight for control of the Swat Valley and the future of Pakistan.
The fight for control of the Swat Valley and the future of Pakistan.
In late February, I was walking down the dusty road that winds through Nyabiando, a town deep in the forests of eastern Congo, when a young Congolese man approached me. Nervous and sweating, he insisted that we talk immediately. We ducked into an alleyway. "We're all going to be killed," he said. A mile-long column of Rwandan soldiers was marching past on their way home to Rwanda. "Why are they leaving before they've finished the job?"