Holbrook's Pakistan visit

Dawn has an article discussing a recent visit where Holbrook talks about the source of Taliban funding, where he suggest that drugs are not that important. He implies they are getting money from outside sources. His closing comment was somewhat of a surprise given the statements of others about the UAV strikes.

...

It took Mr Holbrooke almost by surprise that no one during his trip discussed the drone attacks. The issue has been a regular feature of discussions in past interactions.

‘Heard a lot about it on every trip, but this time no body brought it up, not one person out there, not one, not even the civic society people we met,’ he said.

Perhaps they finally recognize that Pakistan benefits from those strikes too. I have thought for a long time that the objections were perfunctory and not to be taken serious. I also thought that the contention that the locals are upset about them was also misplaced. Now that Pakistan is seriously fighting the Taliban and the people understand what a bunch of thuggish despots they are, the objections to the strikes are muted. That is progress.