ABSTRACT
The Pakistani security forces have won their fight against the insurgency of the Pakistani Taliban, though terrorism will remain a serious problem for the foreseeable future. Victory was won not chiefly on the basis of new tactics, but of the recovery of legitimacy for the campaign among the population and the armed forces. This occurred when the war came to be seen as one waged not in the interests and on the orders of the USA, but for the defense of Pakistan. The shift was due not principally to state policies or propaganda, but rather to the actions of the insurgents themselves. The increasing openness of their aim to overthrow the Pakistani state eventually frightened the political elites and the Army into uniting against them, while their increasingly dreadful atrocities alienated more and more of the population.
