Well, Pakistan of course has been a great partner so far in the war on terror. And there are a couple of things that from a military operations standpoint are pretty important to us.
First and foremost is the cooperation along the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Those military operations conducted by forces on either side of the border are done with increasing openness, collaboration, synchronization. There's good communication between U.S. and Afghan forces on the one and the Pakistan forces on the other, and we would certainly not want to see that jeopardized in any way. So that's a very valuable piece of what we've got.
Secondly, not surprisingly U.S. and other forces in Afghanistan receive much of their supply and reinforcements through Pakistan, both ground and air, so that would -- we obviously are very interested in making sure that that stays open as well.
So I would say those are -- from an operational standpoint, those are the two most significant concerns. ...
... well over half of the supplies the sustainment for forces in Afghanistan come either through or over Pakistan, so it is very, very important to us in that regard.
We may want Pakistan to do more in their frontier regions, but Pakistan could do a lot less if we push too hard.
There is a way to cut this Gordian Knot, of course.
Man, this decade really sucks. And that's even if we get everything right.
