Pakistan's top civilian security official has vowed to "wipe out" Islamic militants in a volatile tribal region where he says more than 460 insurgents and 22 troops have died in 10 days of fighting.
I hope the Pakistanis can keep this up. Even though the Pakistanis cannot make a deal with the jihadi devils who plague them, the casualties endured in the past fighting the jihadis have led the government to negotiate pointless truces.
I suspect that if we really are seeing some resolve by the Pakistanis, it is because we have let them know that we will do the job ourselves, in a novel fashion that may undermine Pakistani control of the border areas.
With our help with special forces, training teams, recon assets, and precision strike, the Pakistanis may yet defeat al Qaeda and their Taliban friends in the last jihad.