Pakistan Gets Uglier
As if the world didn't have enough reasons to be mad at Pakistan. Here's one more: Pakistani militants yesterday attacked a transportation depot and torched a supply convoy of Humvees and supplies destined for U.S. troops in Afghanistan. One security contractor was killed, and this isn't the first time it's happened.
It seems a large amount of the materiel that keeps our war machine in Afghanistan running has to be trucked through Pakistan, since Afghanistan is a landlocked country. Not like we have any choice, but this was probably a bad idea even before this most recent "event," which cost U.S. taxpayers somewhere north of $20 million dollars.
Back in August, the U.S. military began taking matters into their own hands in Pakistan -- sending missiles and sometimes troops across the border in the federally administrated tribal areas to take out known pockets of Taliban. You can be sure we're doing lots more behind the scenes as well. But if the government there doesn't step up and start exerting some control over these militant factions, it's going to get increasingly more difficult to let them "handle things" on their own.
Pakistan is a real mess -- and if this keeps up, there are going to be a whole host of countries standing in line to give the government there some "assistance" in dealing with its problems -- whether it wants it or not.
Once our new president takes office, Pakistan will probably be the thorniest foreign-policy challenge he must face. What he does about it will say a lot to the rest of the world about whether our new leader has what it takes to prosecute the war on terror. On Sunday, Mr. Obama said of the U.S. economy, "It will probably get worse before it gets better." I'd say from the looks of the Iran-Pakistan-India-Afghanistan region, the economy isn't the only thing for which that statement is a foredrawn conclusion.