Pakistan

Pakistan is in a real bind. A large percentage of the population, maybe even a majority, is siding with the enemy. From all of the suicide attacks, it is obvious that many ‘extremists’ exist within that country. What complicates matters is that Afghanistan is right next door. Pakistan helped set up the Taliban within Afghanistan and is now paying a price, as the ‘extremists’ work on both sides of the border. Pakistan is attempting to drive them out, if not destroy them altogether. If driven out, they will flee into Afghanistan where the U.S. will have to deal with them.

If the U.S. launches an offensive, we will tend to drive ‘extremists’ into Pakistan, something the Pakistanis do not wish to occur. It is a catch-22, unless the two sides agree that in the best interests of both sides, we BOTH should engage the enemy by attacking and destroying them together. They will have nowhere to retreat. This would require both sides to commit additional resources to the current forces and escalate the war to a much higher level of combat. Wars are won by the side that escalates to a level that the other side either cannot or will not match. I may be wrong here, but I am certain that when the Obama administration finally decides what to do, it will NOT be an all out attempt to win the war in this way. He will most likely attempt a ‘smaller footprint’. The result cannot be anything else but less decisive. A major problem here is that Pakistan has nuclear weapons. We should not accept anything else but a decisive outcome. Otherwise, our enemies will be able to re-group and re-deploy. As has been shown over and over, this is something that they are very good at.