Pakistan lacks a sense of urgency in dealing with Islamic religious bigots

NY Times:

President Obama’s strategy of offering Pakistan a partnership to defeat the insurgency here calls for a virtual remake of this nation’s institutions and even of the national psyche, an ambitious agenda that Pakistan’s politicians and people appear unprepared to take up.

Officially, Pakistan’s government welcomed Mr. Obama’s strategy, with its hefty infusions of American money, hailing it as a “positive change.” But as the Obama administration tries to bring Pakistanis to its side, large parts of the public, political class and military have brushed off the plan, rebuffing the idea that the threat from Al Qaeda and Taliban militants, whom Washington calls a common enemy, was so urgent.

Some, including the army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, and the president, Asif Ali Zardari, may be coming around. But for the military, at least, India remains priority No. 1, as it has for the 61 years of Pakistan’s existence.

How to shift that focus in time for Pakistan to defeat a fast-expanding Islamic insurgency that threatens to devour the country is the challenge facing Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke, the special envoy to the region, as they arrive in Pakistan for talks early this week.

Strengthening Pakistan’s weak civilian institutions, updating political parties rooted in feudal loyalties and recasting a military fixated on yesterday’s enemy, and stuck in the traditions of conventional warfare, are generational challenges. But Pakistan may not have the luxury of the long term to meet them.

Some analysts here and in Washington are already putting forward apocalyptic timetables for the country. “We are running out of time to help Pakistan change its present course toward increasing economic and political instability, and even ultimate failure,” said a recent report by a task force of the Atlantic Council that was led by former Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts.

The report, released in February, gave the Pakistani government 6 to 12 months before things went from bad to dangerous.

A specialist in guerrilla warfare, David Kilcullen, who advised Gen. David H. Petraeus, the American commander, in Iraq, offered a more dire assessment. Pakistan could be facing internal collapse within six months, he said.

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Pakistan's focus on India seems grossly misplaced. If I were India, I would not want Pakistan. With all the religious bigots running around in Pakistan, why would anyone want those headaches. If the bigots do take charge it could bring the whole wold down on them including India.

Pakistan's current government has been to eager to accommodate the bigots in Swat and elsewhere and its army has not been particularly adept at dealing with them either. Perhaps the problem is that the better forces are facing the India border rather than the place where the most danger resides along the Pakistan border.