The US has spent a lot of time trying to shore up various governments in Pakistan, governments which it has always done its best to make toe the American foreign policy line. The recent flurry of diplomatic activity designed to keep the current Pakistani government on the American side in the region is a clear sign of the importance the US places on Pakistan in resolving the ongoing and soon-to-be escalated conflict in Afghanistan. The US is about to commit up to some 30,000 additional troops to the war in Afghanistan in what it hopes will mirror the moderate success of the surge in Iraq. But there is clearly one uncertain aspect of the Afghan surge. Will the increase in US troops make militant Taliban simply fade across the border into Pakistan if Pakistan does not do a vigorous job of fighting the Taliban on its own soil? The US clearly hopes to be able to pin the Taliban and Al-Qaeda between its forces in Afghanistan and Pakistani forces on the other side, a configuration that will be impossible to achieve should Pakistan not oppose the insurgent forces on its land. The recent offensive by the Pakistani army must be somewhat heartening to the US, but Pakistan must see that it has a tremendous amount to gain by keeping the Taliban out of Pakistan. Not only will it keep the US from its drone-bombing that has cost so many lives but it will also reduce the danger of terrorism erupting in its major cities far from the border. While there are those who say that this is not Pakistan's war but a war forced upon it by Washington, such an argument holds little water when your citizens are being indiscriminately murdered by madmen hoping to assume some poltiical legitimacy by calling themselves terrorists. The US may need an ally in the region, but so does Pakistan. __
