The border with Pakistan is never going to be secure, no matter how many troops we have there. But we can't leave Afghanistan either, and we're not going to. If America walks away again, as it did after the Soviets were forced to leave Afghanistan in the 1980s, the Afghans may lose hope. This will leave them frustrated and angry. There is a popular Pashto proverb that says: "I took revenge after 100 years, and I took it too soon."



It's not that simple, the civilian government in Pakistan is very weak. The military is by far the strongest and most stable institution in Pakistan. And god knows what the motivation or where the loyalties of ISI belongs to. Pakistan is an islamic state with nuclear weapons with a civilian government that's struggling. I believe we need to be very, very wary when we're talking about further bombings/pressure/troops in their territory. When it comes to geo-politics, especially in central asia, I'd rather have Pakistan as an ambiguous ally than a full-blown enemy.



People here seem to forget there has been a significant development since then: an election in which President Hamid Karzai's partisans committed blatant fraud, stuffing ballot boxes and intimidating the opposition. Though Karzai is likely to remain as president, many of his constituents will view him as illegitimate. That would make our task of nation-building, which includes shoring up the karzai regime, even more difficult than it was already. We need to at least see how this political situation shapes up, and adapt our strategy from there. Any decision about going to war or changing strategy needs to be carefully thought through. If that is what the president is attempting to do, I commend him for that. I'm personally sick of knee-jerk decisions, especially when it comes to putting men and women in harms way.