The more things change...

...the more they seem to stay the same:

The (Pakistan) army has tried three times since 2001 to dislodge Taliban fighters from their stronghold in South Waziristan, part of the lawless tribal area along the border. All three previous attempts ended in negotiated truces that left the Taliban in control.
This time, however, military spokesman Gen. Athar Abbas said there will be no negotiations for fear any deals would be seen as a failure and could jeopardize gains won last spring when Pakistani soldiers wrested control of the Swat Valley, elsewhere in the northwest.
"If we fail, everything is rolled back," Abbas said.
Failure would also deal a humiliating blow to government security forces. A series of assaults against government installations, including the army's general headquarters, has shown the Taliban along the mountainous border and their allies in the heart of the country are bolstering an alliance capable of challenging the Pakistani state.

In other words, here we go again...

"No patchwork scheme--and all our present schemes are mere patchwork--will settle the Waziristan problem. Not until the military steamroller has passed over the country from end to end, will there be peace. But I do not want to be the person to start that machine." Lord Curzon, British viceroy of India, 1901