Quotes from the MOD paper alleging ISI support for Taleban/Al Qaeda

Here's a link to the BBC's key quotes from the document. In concert with the recent US NIE, it's worth a read. (It's short.)

Short summary, the "war on terror" is not going well. Iraq is acting as a "recruiting sargeant." But this is what brought me up.

"The West will not be able to find peaceful exit strategies from Iraq and Afghanistan - creating greater animosity...and a return to violence and radicalisation on their leaving. The enemy it has identified (terrorism) is the wrong target. As an idea it cannot be defeated."

Also interesting, beyond the ISI supporting the Taleban/Al Qaeda, is the section on the stability and future of Musharraf's government.

"Pakistan is not currently stable but on the edge of chaos."

This is the big fear as both Iraq and Afghanistan drag on. Their unresolving chaos spreads to influence neighbors. Think the Saudis are building that wall for aesthetic reasons? Or the Pakistanis signed that Waziristan peace deal because they wanted to cede control?

This is how a localized power vacuum turns into a regional civil war like Congo or Angola.

Iraq and Afghanistan's neighbors also want "to fight them over there, so they don't have to fight them here." Only their definitions of "them" and "here" are different.