Pakistan's army is ready to launch a major offensive in the al-Qaida and Taliban stronghold of South Waziristan, but is waiting approval from the government and first wants to reach deals with local warlords to support the operation, intelligence officials said Friday.
After years of intermittent and faltering steps against the jihadis on their side of the border by Pakistan (complicated by the 2006 decision of their ISI to restart support for the Taliban), over the last year the Pakistanis have been pretty resolute about fighting their jihadis to roll back the jihadi gains.
But pauses by Pakistan always make me worry that they'll stop short of victory, which is not an option if we are to be able to really cement a victory in Afghanistan.
I expect that $1.5 billion per year have bought us some persistence by the Pakistanis.
