Terrorism and good governance

It is time we started working on a war-footing to efficiently deliver services through improved governance and unimpeachable integrity.
While the US/NATO troops keep using airpower too often against ‘suspects’ with dubious results, the situation stays shady for them. In Afghanistan, the Taliban appear to be calling the shots, generally, which influences FATA in a big way. Tragically the massive use of drones/missiles, so far, appears to be killing innocent civilians too often. By a quirk of fate, marriage celebrations appear to attract atrocious attacks which invariably produce casualties among women and children. The most recent of such shocks was the slaughter of 40 persons including 11 women and 21 children besides many more injured in Shah Wali Kot/Kandahar. It was an assembly of the local people exulting at a marriage party. Karzai, who has quite often made mild protests at such happenings earlier on, was obliged to pinpoint: “We cannot win the fight against terrorism with air strikes.” He said: “This is my first demand of the new president of the United States, to put an end to civilian casualties.”
As if this was not bad enough, the powers-that-be killed eight people in Waziristan the next day and 12 in Landikotal/Khyber Agency later on in the last week. The Pakistani elected government condemned such loss of life in indiscriminate attacks by foreign troops. Later on the ‘insurgents’ underscored their disposition by seizing 13 trucks in Khyber Pass carrying supplies for NATO. The drivers were also taken hostage. Pakistani forces tried to mount a rescue operation by dispatching helicopter gunships but the terrible terrain helped the ‘insurgents’ out. A perusal of the history of British Raj or the British memorabilia would carry strange experiences of their civil servants/armymen who happened to get involved with the area. By any criterion, Khyber Pass makes a wonderful study but impossible to conquer; much less to hold subservient.
The British learnt their lesson of avoiding direct control of Afghanistan or Pakistani FATA after suffering huge losses of manpower etc. So they devised a system whereby they maintained their influence through carrot and stick. In later years of their empire, the use of stick was rather less. However, given their genius/commitment for governance within the legal framework, the British as well their proxies of local origin, exploited the local traditions to maintain their projected cost-benefit ratio in managing their initiative beyond the borders of the civil areas of NWFP. It required the character and integrity of people like Churchill, Olaf Caroe, Rooskeppel etc who performed their jobs in this dangerous area with the sole objective of promoting the interest of the Raj without fear or favour. These standards appear to have suffered a setback as Mountbatten played his dubious game before and after the dawn of Indian partition heralding independence of the two dominions.