The Center of a Regional Crisis

The ancient proverb "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" does not apply in Pakistan. Knowledge of Raumschach (space chess) as played on "Star Trek" is more useful. It's a form of 3-D chess in which one can lose on several levels.

The geopolitical nexus of Afghanistan-Pakistan-FATA-India is seen in the White House as a regional crisis that requires a holistic politico-military approach. But suspicions and disinformation about each other's motives, replete with conspiracy theories, have combined to make Pakistan, the Muslim world's only nuclear power, the most dangerous place on Earth.

President Obama sees the enemy in Afghanistan as Taliban and al Qaeda. But al Qaeda shelters and Taliban rests and trains in the mountain fastness of the Hindu Kush in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (or FATA). And while Pakistan is "a major non-NATO ally," it also assists, through its interintelligence service (ISI), the Taliban insurgents fighting U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.

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