My sense of the situation is that leadership is unwilling to say anything negative about Islam because they don’t want to offend the Islamic countries with the cash in the Persian Gulf area.
After 9/11 actual policy was directed away from Saudi Arabia as an enemy and directed north into Iraq, the Saudi’s enemy.
Afghanistan harbored al-Qaeda but when they ran into Pakistan, they only got pin prick Vietnam style attacks aimed at them.
Pakistan created the Taliban that harbored the terrorists and they got off pretty good enjoying a pretty safe haven.
When Obama did a targeted assassination of bin Laden for re-election, the Pakistanis had a fit and threw the dentist who helped with the operation in jail.
Pakistan doesn’t have money but they do have nukes and that’s what caused the half-a**ed approach.
Very interesting analysis. Hopefully we’ll hear McMaster’s current views fully articulated during his confirmation hearings. What he says then, I’ll believe. What the NYT and its unnamed sources say in the meantime will continue to be Fake News.