U.S. incursions seen as risky for Pakistan

Camobodia, Laos sound familiar. Pakistan has been hiding & resupplying them from the beginnng. What is the problem? Politicians see it's morally correct to expend American lives rather than our enemies. Congress, continue to sit on your ass and tell others how to fight your war. Nothing changes.

Recognition by the new Pakistani government (Mr. Zardari) that the fight against Pakistani extremists is a fight to change "the hearts and minds of (his) people," and cannot "be won only by guns and bombs" is an acknowledgement of the effectiveness and success of the American "surge" policy employed by General Petraeus in Iraq. It took Senator John McCain and others in 2003 to understand this and then to convince those in charge to re-direct American efforts toward that strategy in Iraq, before we began to gain the confidence of the Iraqi people, reduce the violence there, pacify areas once held by extremists, receive intelligence and cooperation from religious and ethnic factions there, and begin to win that war on terror. It's encouraging to learn that the Zardari government wants to defeat the militants on its own, and has mounted campaigns supported by thousands of troops, tanks and other military equipment, into Bajaur a tribal area along the border with Afghanistan, We need to watch with interest the results achieved by this offensive. Who knows! It might even lead to the capture of Bin Laden, if, as some believe, he's hiding out in that area.

Nobody likes the thought of going after Iran, but frankly that is the theater we had better gear up for especially if Israel takes a first strike because of Iran's movement toward nukes. Which is worse (Pakistan or Iran)...hard to say...it kind of depends on alQ taking it to our streets or not.

With the increased level of violence, I don't think there is time for social and economic methods to take effect. Depending on the stage of the malignancy, you have to take actions accordingly.