ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistani officials moved swiftly Wednesday to use the suicide bombing of a luxury hotel in their campaign to build public support for military offensives against the Taliban, saying the country is at war. Past offensives against Islamist militants have resulted in backlashes as many Pakistanis concluded the only way to end the bloodshed and destruction was for the weak central government to strike a deal with the extremists — which it did as recently as this past spring in the Swat Valley, only to have an emboldened Taliban violate the agreement by seizing an adjacent district. “This is a war, but the people of this country will not bow to the cowardly acts of terrorists. People are now seeing the real face of those who have been exploiting them in the name of Islam,” North West Frontier Province senior minister Bashir Ahmad Bilour Bilour told reporters.—-Contact The Daily Reveille’s news staff at [email protected]