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Friday, July 11, 2014

Interpretive Dance

I haven't commented on Pakistan's offensive into the jihadi lair in North Waziristan despite my long desire that Pakistan would act. Sadly, Pakistan simply sent in the "redshirts" to die in order to make the show look real.

Yeah, Pakistan isn't exactly stepping up in the war on terror (tip to Defense Industry Daily email update):

For years now, the United States and Afghanistan have demanded that Pakistan conduct an operation in North Waziristan. North Waziristan is the ostensible home to the Haqqani Network and to slews of foreign fighters tied to al Qaeda, the Afghan Taliban, the Pakistani Taliban and various other militant groups operating throughout the region.

While Pakistan seems to finally be acting, don’t expect this operation to yield any big catches. The army, as it did in 2010, gave plenty of warning. Any terrorist worth his Chinese knock-off Air Jordans has long fled the scenes. Key members of the Haqqani Network have long been ensconced in Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

Jihadis keep attacking Pakistani civilians and the Pakistani government continues to draw distinctions between "bad jihadis" to attack Pakistanis and "good jihadis" who attack others.

I was right not to get my hopes up.

Although my basic view on Pakistan remains that I'd rather have them as a highly flawed ally than have them as an enemy who we manage to have multilateral talks with to resolve differences. Face it, if we could get relations with Iran like Pakistan, we'd call it a diplomatic triumph.