When You Don't Fight Them "Over There"

Pakistan's rulers have refused--until very recently (and assuming this is a real change)--to see the Taliban as the primary threat to Pakistan. This article is a good summary of the problem and the stakes.

While Pakistan now fights the jihadis in Swat, we shall see if the will to fight persists and the Pakistanis continue to attack wherever the jihadis stand.

This description of the capital is a good warning about what happens when you won't fight the jihadis where they stand, assuming distance is a good enough protection:

Pakistan's once sleepy capital, full of restaurant-going bureaucrats and diplomats, is now littered with concrete barriers, blast walls, checkpoints, armed police, and soldiers; as a result of recent suicide bombings the city now resembles Baghdad or Kabul.

Yes, Islamabad is much closer to the jihadis than we are to the jihadis, but the basic truth remains--fight and kill them wherever we can, because if we fail to fight them over there, they'll fight us over here.