My point is that violating the territorial integrity of an ally--Pakistan--is not going to help assist anti-terror efforts as much as many would think because the web of terror is far more ubiquitous than we know... Invading Pakistan's border territories would under the circumstances have no effect on terror.
From a military perspective the effect will be minimal. From a psychological perspective the effect will be enormous. Every Muslim on earth would know that Osama was sitting in a protected zone thumbing his nose at us, and that would not be a good thing. Even if we could render him and his immediate allies militarily inutile, we can't afford to have that happen.
However, we can't go into Pakistan. I wonder, when push comes to shove, how secure Musharraf will be, how much influence we will have over him, and how much he will have over the military and the NWFP?
Big questions. Not being asked much, though. All the attention is on Iraq, and it will stay there for a while. Unless, of course, some bearded nutter takes over Islamabad, sends the bad boys into Kashmir, and threatens to nuke India if the people behind the Gujarat riots aren't publicly beheaded. O Happy Day.
I just can't think of anything particularly effective that we might do
Neither can I. Of course I don't know much about Saudi Arabia. I do have this sneaking suspicion that if we put the problem at the top of the table and devoted all possible resources to devising a solution, we might come up with something. |
