This attack will work against them

ARTICLE: Pakistani Militants At Center Of Probe, By Craig Whitlock and Karen DeYoung, Washington Post, November 29, 2008; Page A01

Obviously, Pakistan militants would love to forestall any concentrated West+East+Pakistani effort to crack down on the that state's ungoverned areas by triggering an Indian-Pakistani conflict.

But, in grand strategic terms, they are far too late in attempting this.

So what they really end up buying is more Old-New Core cooperation--not less.

Again, the timing is hardly coincidental but highly useful from our perspective--if handled with care.

Comments

[David Emery]

>Again, the timing is hardly coincidental but highly useful from our>perspective--if handled with care.

A big part of our dilemma is the ability of the Pakistani Government to actually effect change, i.e. the assertions that the current government is weak, and that there is support within the Pakistani military and intelligence service for at least some of these radical/militant/terrorist groups.

I can't help but thinking that we'll miss Mussharaf in the coming months... What influence do we have with Zardari to get him to really take on elements in his own government?

[Forrest Higgs]

Given the "prove that we were involved to our satisfaction" attitude that the Pakistan gov't seems bent on taking, I'm wondering if India will turn them into a glass-lined parking lot. How Pakistan is reacting is very much like how the Taliban gov't in Afghanistan reacted after 9/11. It might very well get the Pakistanis the same outcome, except that I doubt whether the Indian army will be nearly so careful as the Americans were.

[December 1, 2008 |]

The seeming reluctance of armed police, first on the scene, to respond effectively to the terror attack is interesting, and something that we should think about as we analyze our own readiness for a similar type of attack in the U.S.

I argue here that at other times in history we were fairly prepared for unpleasant surprises like what occurred in Mumbai, using the historical example of the James-Younger raid on Northfield Minnesota. Cheers.

[Matt Osborne]

"Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States" has an analogue, it turns out:

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=6368013&page=1

[William R. Cumming]

Interesting that this attack appears to be a specific reprise of an attack in Mumbai in 1993 using similiar tactics. Probably could succeed in almost any major modern city.