A political response to a geopolitical problem.

Look, I don't have an answer for the Pakistani border territories, but I find it highly disingenuous for the administration to be suddenly talking like this.

The Bush administration, after publicly demanding that Musharraf rein in militants linked to al Qaida, on Wednesday threatened to launch attacks into Pakistani territory if it sees fit.

"We certainly do not rule out options, and we retain the option especially of striking actionable targets," said White House spokesman Tony Snow. "But it is clearly of the utmost importance to go in there and deal with the problem in the tribal areas."

(Or maybe you prefer Francis Fragos Townsend on Good Morning America.)

This is obviously a political response to the declassification of the NIE, but it's not like the intelligence in the NIE suddenly surprised this administration. The NIE is just a formalization of what they've been hearing for months, and it's only now that the political pressure has turned against them that they start with this rhetoric.

It's not helpful. Even if they are going to "strike actionable targets," speaking about it in the hypothetical doesn't help anyone. It only helps them politically here.