Too late for forbidding -- once Pakistani-backed terrorists attacked the heart of the Indian govt.,
The terrorists were NOT Pakistani backed. Not even India is claiming this. Pakistan stopped backing Kashmiri terrorists quite some time ago. If you have any evidence that Pakistan was backing these terrorists, please provide it and include your sources.
It is true that the terrorists were operating from within Pakistan, but that is quite a different thing from Pakistan sponsoring them. Pakistan has already made 50+ arrests and frozen the accounts of the leader of the organization suspected to be responsible.
our ability to restrain India went out the window from both a moral standpoint and a practical one.
India is no match militarily to us, and they depend on us economically. They would never dare cross us.
Pakistani efforts to catch Al-Qaeda have been weak
Prove it (and no, the word of the Afgan interior minister does not constitute proof).
and I'm still not convinced that Pakistan won't recreate the Taliban in a new form once we've moved on.
More unproven assertions.
Better to smash them now while their nuclear arsenal is small and limited in range.
Yeah, having them lob a nuclear bomb on our forces in Afganistan would really help us out in our war against Al Qaeda.
And since we're already trying to create a stable regime in Afganistan, why not spend a few more billion dollars and do the same thing Pakistan while we're at it? Nationbuilding is just so much fun, you know.
Seriously, have you thought any of this through? I suspect you are allowing your justifiable hatred of Mohammedanism cloud your judgement.