An attack that wasn’t

Mark Twain’s adage, “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes,” can apply to bad news too. It may hit us before the first cup of coffee, while good news goes unnoticed.

That was the case in a Christian village in Pakistan near the Afghan border, where security forces in early September beat back an attempted massacre by Taliban affiliates.

The Islamic jihadis of Jamaat-ul-Ahrar arrived at the village church early Friday morning—four men strapped with suicide vests and armed with automatic weapons. In September 2013 only two such suicide bombers killed 80 people, exploding themselves outside a church in nearby Peshawar. This time, a lone security guard held off the attackers long enough to alert security forces. The terrorists killed the security guard.

This is where it gets interesting, because at this moment U.S. policy plays a role, which I will come back to. The suicide bombers moved to Christian homes, rounded up a few families (they delayed because they wanted to maximize the body count), and were attempting to blow themselves up when the security forces called by the guard arrived. Two jihadis were killed in a gun battle, and the remaining two exploded their vests, killing themselves but without taking other casualties. A Christian village was saved.

Security forces in even a village outside Peshawar notice when we take the terror fight seriously.

Too often we don’t hear when the terrorists don’t win. Too often, in countries like Pakistan where Christians are regularly targeted, security forces are never summoned, or if they are, they fail to show up at all, or in time.

Pakistan’s government, while having a long way to go, “is exhibiting signs of good governance toward minorities,” said Wilson Chowdhry of the British Pakistani Christian Association. What plays a role in good governance that protects minorities and fights terrorists on the spot?

For one thing, prayer. When you pray for the persecuted church, your prayers may be halting a massacre. Good resources abound, such as prayer guides from groups like Open Doors. A yearlong prayer calendar from Operation World features Pakistan in September.

And when you pray for rulers and authorities, you may be helping the persecuted church, too. That’s where U.S. policy also comes in. On Aug. 3, the State Department designated Jamaat-ul-Ahrar a global terrorist organization. It noted the group had staged “multiple attacks,” including two in March—one killing two Pakistani employees of the U.S. Consulate in Peshawar, and an Easter Sunday attack killing 72 people and wounding more than 300 in Lahore. The State designation did not note the boast of Jamaat-ul-Ahrar spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan following the Lahore attack: “The target was Christians.”

But the U.S. designation put Pakistan on notice. It imposed sanctions not only on the group but on anyone known to associate with the group—significant in a country where Pakistani officials are known to aid the Taliban and others. It blocked access to U.S. financial markets and “all property subject to U.S. jurisdiction.” Such a designation is a well-honed tool of war too often overlooked in political debates, and too little used effectively by the Obama administration. Secretary of State Clinton’s failure to similarly designate Boko Haram in Nigeria allowed the group to grow into one of the most dangerous terrorist organizations in the world.

The Obama administration also took another decisive step this summer, withholding $300 million in military aid to Pakistan. That’s military assistance it and other allies have come to expect under the U.S. Coalition Support Funds program, which reimburses allied operations to combat militants. The program itself is worthy—in essence, paying our allies to fight terrorists on their own soil—but has suffered because the United States has wielded no stick behind so fat a carrot. Security forces in even a village outside Peshawar notice when we take the terror fight seriously.

Wielding the financial weapons of war is more important as the United States withdraws from Afghanistan and the terrorism threat continues to proliferate. But for now, pausing to celebrate good news, and an attack that wasn’t, is important too.

Email mbelz@wng.org