Meanwhile, at the Front

Not the kinetic front, the real front in the war on terror:

The Pakistani Army firmly believes that Washington’s real aim in Pakistan is to neutralize the nation’s prized nuclear arsenal, which is now on a path to becoming the world’s fifth largest, said the Pakistani official closely involved in the decision on reducing the American presence.

On the American side, frustration has built over the Pakistani Army’s seeming inability to defeat a host of militant groups, including the Taliban and Al Qaeda, which have thrived in Pakistan’s tribal areas despite more than $1 billion in American assistance a year to the Pakistani military.

In a rare public rebuke, a White House report to Congress last week described the Pakistani efforts against the militants as disappointing.

So we had a bunch of CIA contractors and operatives roaming Pakistan; after the Davis affair they got spooked and wanted some of them out; we get mad and rebuke them for not helping us win the war we are paying them to help us win and they respond by telling us to stop the drone attacks. SSDD..

American officials believed the training program was essential to improve the capacity of the nearly 150,000 Pakistani soldiers deployed to fight the Taliban in the tribal region.

The C.I.A. quietly withdrew all contractors after Mr. Davis’s arrest, the Pakistani official said.

Why oh why are we still working with the ISI? Can this even be partially explained to the average American? Perhaps the shady real goal is to keep an eye on their nukes--know thine enemy, makes the most sense--but if so we don't appear to be winning. Add in the deaths of the UN workers over a burned Koran in Florida and it appears we don't have the hearts and minds, either.

But does anyone care? Despite a lack of media coverage our troops are still dying over there, fighting to stop terrorism while our politicians are over here trying to stop America from going bankrupt. Few would see a tie-in with the exception of bin Laden--he hasn't forgotten. Oh well, maybe Obama can explain how he's actually kicking big time ass over there in his speech Wednesday night after he scolds 'both sides' for not settling their differences.