The Truth About Pakistan

Finding a solution may be harder than the problem. David Piling's smart Financial Times piece on the America's fraught relationship with Pakistan pokes holes in America's current anti-terrorism strategy. Piling writes that the U.S. is currently pursuing a strategy toward Afpak that treats the fight against terrorism in Pakistan and Afghanistan as if they are the same war, based on the way that militants cross over the countries' borders, essentially at will. The tidy strategy has four core problems: U.S. troops are not allowed in Pakistan, which means they cannot follow militants over the border; Pakistan's new civilian government has shaky control over a military and intelligence service which may maintain a relationship with militant groups; the courts have proven that they cannot be relied upon to fight militancy; and the nearby Indian region Kashmir is "a crucible of jihad" that India does not want the U.S. meddling in.