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Under diplomatic pressure from the United States on the eve of talks at the White House, President Asif Ali Zardari ordered a military offensive against Taliban guerrillas in Pakistan's Swat Valley. ABC's Martha Raddatz revisited the tourist zone where a three-month truce is collapsing, prompting "thousands of terrified residents" to flee. Raddatz covered the Taliban's original offensive in the fall of 2007 and previewed this counteroffensive last month. NBC's Richard Engel was in New York where he narrated similar Swat videotape: "Bracing today for heavy fighting, Taliban militants took up positions in government buildings in Swat and reportedly mined bridges and roads." He estimated that as many as half a million civilians could be displaced.
"The United States needs Zardari to rein in the militants and guarantee his nation's nuclear weapons are safe from terrorist hands but the US is dealing with a weak president in a country more accustomed to military dictatorships," said CBS' Lara Logan in her preview of Barack Obama's three-way diplomacy with Zardari and Hamid Karzai, the President of Afghanistan. NBC's White House correspondent Chuck Todd characterized Obama's task as convincing the two leaders that they share a common enemy with the US, namely "Islamic extremists." CBS' Logan quoted Karzai's riposte: "Force will not buy you obedience no matter how much it is."
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