[Angelus Errare]

Basically, here's the way things work in Pakistan.

Musharraf, the Pakistani military (or the officer corps at least), and the Muttahidah Qaumi Movement (the Pakistani Muslim League which, despite it's name, is more of a nationalist party than anything else) all support the War on Terror as far as the elimination of al-Qaeda goes because they desire a continuation of the Musharraf dictatorship. But while they oppose al-Qaeda's central network, the various Islamic Pakistani groups (all al-Qaeda affiliates) that organize attacks on India are allowed and encouraged to carry out their work. If any one of these groups begins getting at odds with the government, their members get arrested (at least temporarily) until they put their sights back on India.

The ISI, while its directors are now staffed with Musharraf loyalists, has a lot of support for al-Qaeda among the rank and file and an internal purge is really needed to clean up the organization.

As far as the Pakistani people go, up in the northern areas of the Northwest Frontier Province and Baluchistan support for al-Qaeda runs extremely high. The native Islamic party in those provinces that supported the Taliban in 2001, the Muttahidah Majlis-e-Amal, did disturbingly well in the last elections and their ascension in the northern areas of the country has made it difficult for the federal Pakistani soldiers to carry out their orders in the hunt for al-Qaeda. This is why the US continues to support Musharraf, because he's considered a far better alternative for governing a nuclear power than the MMA.

[Coop]

I knew bits and pieces of that, but your wrap-up is very informative and appreciated.

[Valin]

The world is a lot more complicated than many people realize. It would make things so much easier if the world was composed of good guys and bad guys. And the good guys always wore white hats and were pure as the driven snow, the bad guys black and were always pure (adolf hitler) evil. But it just isn't that way.