3:29AM
Bad signs in Pakistan
Monday, April 27, 2009 at 3:29AM ARTICLE: Petraeus Calls On Pakistan To Redirect Military Focus, By Ann Scott Tyson, Washington Post, Saturday, April 25, 2009
A sign of how bad it's getting in Pakistan (where their Badlands are as close as West Virginia is to DC): Petraeus delivering in public the sort of message normally delivered in private--even F2F.
Af-Pak quickly becomes Pak-Af.
One can only hope our lines of communication are solid with the Indian Army, because this "crazy" is getting awfully close to India's front lawn.
Reader Comments (3)
I'm left with the sense that from our own interests, Musharraf would have been better at responding to the current crisis. On the other hand, the Pakistani Army trained, etc, under Musharraf doesn't seem to be up to its current tasks (and that's something we cannot blame Zadari for...)
IMO you may be right that it's shifting from Af-Pak to Pak-Af, but your reasoning may be different. I think that's because Af is already close to stabilized (albeit at the bottom of the barrel), while Pak is still a wildcard and could be rescued with proper intervention at the right place and time. While one (Af) is relatively under control, especially with NATO allies helping throughout the country (which remains part of the lawless badlands with no proper government or governance to speak of), we can say to our friends "hold the fort, we'll be right back" and go take care of more pressing business next door...
And on the issue of India, I would think that we've already made contact there given our focus on the FATA and then the Northwest Frontier Province (including the Swat Valley) which is directly adjacent to that long-standing Indo-Pak argument over the Kashmir...