The failing "other war" - The spiralling problems of the militants on the Afghan/Pak border

I guess we should start with the AP's rendering of a new "Pentagon report that offers a dim view of progress in the nearly seven-year-old war."

The Taliban has regrouped after its initial fall from power in Afghanistan and the pace of its attacks is likely to increase this year.....

Despite U.S. and coalition efforts to capture and kill key leaders, the Taliban is likely to "maintain or even increase the scope and pace of its terrorist attacks and bombings in 2008."

The Taliban, it said, has "coalesced into a resilient insurgency."

Next, perhaps, let's visit Peshawar, Pakistan's largest city in the tribal provinces about 100 miles from Pakistan's capital, with the NYTimes,

In the last two months, Taliban militants have suddenly tightened the noose on this city of three million people......

The threat to Peshawar is a sign of the Taliban’s deepening penetration of Pakistan and of the expanding danger that the militants present to the entire region, including nearby supply lines for NATO and American forces in Afghanistan.

Or, more ominously, McClatchy,

Heavily armed Islamic militants have massed on the outskirts of Peshawar, the strategic provincial capital in northwest Pakistan, and the Pakistani government has dramatically stepped up security around the city amid fears that it could fall.

Taliban groups and other extremist warlords now threaten Peshawar from three sides.....

Then, there's Pakistan's latest response,

Pakistani forces bombarded suspected militant hideouts with mortar shells Saturday as the government launched a major offensive against Taliban fighters threatening the main city in the country's volatile northwest, officials said.....

"All bazaars are shut and residents have been asked not to come out of their homes," he said.

Last, perhaps this BBC analysis piece, "Can Pakistan's new anti-militancy strategy work?," which concludes,

"It is still not clear if our security establishment has really decided to dump the Taleban."

If Mr Khatak's doubts are well-founded, then many fear we are in for a period of "cosmetic" military actions aimed at containing the militants, rather than eliminating the militant threat altogether.

Frankly, I don't have the slightest idea of how you would untie the knots stretching from Pakistan's halls of power through the tribal regions into Afghanistan.

I do know this, though. The opportunities were much greater in 2002/2003 when world opinion was far more on the US side, the Pakistanis were far more willing (and politically capable) to cooperate, and the Taleban and Al Qaeda was in fact broken and on the run.

And this president chose to go into Iraq.........