President Obama's foreign-policy gurus are baffled by Pakistan's anarchic chaos, which is sweeping across one of the world's eight nuclear powers. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said she had trouble understanding why the Pakistani army isn't moving to suppress Taliban insurgents inching closer to the capital city of Islamabad.
After six decades of independence - half that time under military dictatorship - Pakistan is still a largely feudal society where landless Taliban have started an uprising against the landlords that back the inept government of President Asif Ali Zardari. It is hard to imagine that he enjoys much support in the budding showdown between Pakistan's "haves" and "have-nots." He says Pakistan is in a state of war without defining the enemy. For Taliban and Pakistan's landless millions, the enemy is Pakistan's political establishment and the feudal estates that enjoy government protection.
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