You nailed it with that post, hedgie.
While everyone's attention has been directed elsewhere; at Iraq, Syria, elections and WMD, the most dangerous phase of this war has been building to a crescendo in Pakistan. The radical Islamists there (i.e., al Qa'ida and the Taliban) are on the verge of overthrowing Musharraf and taking direct control of Pakistan's nuclear stockpile.
There were two assassination attempts on Musharraf's life in December that were nearly successful. The sophistication of those attempts clearly implicate Musharraf's Islamist-ridden army command, intelligence service, and even his personal staff. Al Qa'ida's second in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri issued a fatwa on Musharraf this past September. Musharraf is fighting back and has publicly voiced his plans to purge the Islamists from the Army and the intelligence service and has begun a massive campaign to bust all al Qa'ida and Taliban forces in Pakistan. The large success of this latter effort is probably due to U.S. intelligence cooperation.
Anyone who blows this off as a meaningless sideshow is in for a very big surprise. Expect this to play out early this year.
--Boot Hill
BTW I have a feeling we are already operating inside the tribal areas.