Pakistan may at long last be making the final leap in the long transition from supporting the Taliban prior to 9/11, to trying to hedge their bets to avoid siding between America and domestic jihad sympathixers, to finally fighting to destroy the jihadis inside Pakistan before the jihadis destroy Pakistan.
Pakistan may be ready to take another important step:
The Pakistani military, long reluctant to heed American urging that it attack Pakistani militant groups in their main base in North Waziristan, is coming around to the idea that it must do so, in its own interests.
Western officials have long believed that North Waziristan is the single most important haven for militants with Al Qaeda and the Taliban fighting American and NATO forces in Afghanistan. Pakistan has nurtured militant groups in the area for years in order to exert influence beyond its borders.
The developing shift in thinking — described in recent interviews with Western diplomats and Pakistani security officials — represents a significant change for Pakistan’s military, which has moved against Taliban militants who attack the Pakistani state, but largely left those fighting in Afghanistan alone.
That distinction is becoming harder to maintain, Pakistani and Western officials say, as the area becomes an alphabet soup of dangerous militant groups that have joined forces to extend their reach deeper inside Pakistan.
Pakistan's fight agaisnt al Qaeda and their Taliban may yet be the last jihad.
UPDATE: Petraeus in Pakistan and drone attacks in North Waziristan indicate how the Pakistan front of the Taliban War is still ramping up:
Suspected U.S. missiles killed four alleged militants in a Pakistani tribal region near the Afghan border Monday, officials said, while a top U.S. general arrived here to discuss the countries' efforts in the war against Islamist extremists.
The missile strike underscored U.S. confidence in the much-criticized tactic, despite recent video footage that shows the Pakistani Taliban chief may not have been killed in a similar attack in January as earlier thought.
The three missiles were fired minutes apart at a moving vehicle in the Marsi Khel area in North Waziristan, said two intelligence officials who confirmed the death toll on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record.
North Waziristan has long been a haven for militant networks battling American and NATO forces across the border in Afghanistan. In recent months, it has also been something of a hide-out for Pakistani Taliban leaders who have fled an army offensive in their previous stronghold, South Waziristan.
We need the help on that side of the border to do the job on our side.
