Soob

Pakistan said on Tuesday it had attacked Taliban and al-Qaeda positions in an airstrike that coincided with a visit to Afghanistan by Robert Gates, the new US defence secretary.

The attack, in the south Waziristan region, near the Afghan border, comes amid mounting western concerns that Nato’s struggle against the Taliban cannot be won without greater co-operation from Islamabad.

Last week John Negroponte, the US’s director of national intelligence and nominee for deputy secretary of state, said Pakistan remained al-Qaeda’s centre for global operations.

Nato officials add that the Taliban retains a command centre in the Quetta area and that Pakistan has become a safe haven for the insurgents, so crippling the alliance’s long-term strategy.

Using gunships to eradicate "miscreants" seems a bit counter productive to effective national leadership in any situation. Should, tomorrow, Apaches lay waste to various gang factions in Los Angelos I'll be purchasing a one way ticket to Japan. And yes, I realize the two events are not exactly analogous.

Such is the burden that Pervez Musharaff must bear. In light of SecDef Bakers visit and American concerns that Pakistan may well entail the focal point of the Afghan (Taliban) "resistance", it was decided that punctuation of it's "control" over the situation should involve helicopter attacks on Taliban elements in it's western territory. As though mobilizing ones armed forces to take aggressive action within ones own nation is demonstrative of effective leadership and conducive to national unity. I'd say the Romans of early 1st century BC might argue that assertion.

Certainly Mushi is no Sulla but his tightrope walking might come to an end amidst his unwillingness (or failure) to build an effective covert network to track and eliminate Taliban operations instead preferring to mount aggressive, overt military actions within his own borders. Such actions might lend a degree of "cooperative strategic comfort" to both the American media and even American politicians but they do little to further the cause of NATO operations in Afghanistan. Furthermore they present a clear picture of instability on the domestic front to any portions of Mushi's domestic support while fueling those that oppose him.

Perversly it might be Musharaffs cozying up to America (remember his Daily Show appearance) that obliterates what might be an effective strategy in combating the Taliban forces within his borders. Should any large American clandestine counter-Taliban activity in Pakistan come to light Pervez will be marginalized as an "American Puppet" and likely be forced from power.