It is perfectly obvious to me that Pakistan must not just be occupied, but dissolved.
The problem is that we have had two years to assemble and train armed forces capable of this, and we have not done so.
Bush and Rummy have perfected dispersing rival armies and overturning their governments with light or ultralight forces, and few casualties.
But this feat of military legerdemain does not allow for a heavy occupation and reformation of these enemy societies.
It is a serious, perhaps fatal, misjudgement that the leaders are the problem. They are not.
The leaders are barely staying alive themselves, allowing the war lust and hatred of their societies such expression as we will tolerate, while repressing its more serious forms which will provoke our reaction.
The USMC and Army SOF can chase the government of Pakistan out, break up its armed forces, and capture its nukes in a month.
Such an expeditionary force, however, has no chance of controlling the society which wouild result. Conditions in Pakistan would be worse, not better, afterwards.
I am very concerned that this is the future of both Afghanistan and Iraq.
And I am not one who believes we can walk away. If we do, the Islamist cultures are coming to kill our women and children. There is no doubt of it.
And there is no alternative to Bush. All his opposition is on the left-none speaks for what must be done.
Let's hope he doesn't falter.
Yeah, but we're talking about minor-league opponents like Afghanistan and Iraq. In the former case, a really antiquated adversary that didn't have the means to hit back with anything. In the latter, an army that for the most part disbanded upon bombardment. None of this applies to Pakistan. To think that Musharraf occupies the same position as Saddam is ridiculous. Pakistani resistance won't collapse with the collapse of the central government - which is largely ineffectual to begin with. Their military is the one institution that has historically united an otherwise fragmented nation, and if attacked by any foreign interest, it will strike back savagely in any way it can.
In fact Al Qaeda would like nothing better than us to invade Pakistan. Their sympathizers are definitely behind the nuclear standoffs with India, and relative moderates like Musharraf always have to restrain them at the last minute. It's not an inaccurate observation that huge swathes of Pakistan are ripe for a fundamentalist takeover, and defeat in a conventional war against either US or India will provide the perfect opportunity for the extremists to seize the spotlight.
We have to tread carefully when dealing with both Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. They're far bigger challenges in the long run than either Iran or North Korea, because however untrustworthy their leaders are, their general populations hate America and Israel even more, owing to an unfortunate combination of circumstances beyond our control.