Pakistan remains the center of gravity for Taliban

Javed Siddiq and Dean Nelson:

The Obama administration was reported to be planning in influx of CIA operatives and an intensified campaign of missile attacks from Predator drones after Pakistan's failure to so far rein in militant attacks launched across the Afghan border and increasing concern about the security of its nuclear arsenal.

US officials have publicly questioned why Islamabad has failed to challenge Taliban leaders like Jalaluddin Haqqani, whose militia has killed more Nato troops that any other in raids launched from his base in Pakistan's North Waziristan. His ability to direct attacks inside Afghanistan has been presented as evidence that the sustained threat to reginal security comes from within Pakistan rather than across its frontier.

The use by militants of Pakistan's remote tribal areas along the border have both raised serious questions of Islamabad's commitment to defeating the insurgency and underlined the need for its support for the US plan succeed.

Anne W Patterson, the US ambassador to Pakistan, sought to allay these concerns when she revealed the US commander, Gen Stanley McCrystal, held a six-hour meeting with Pakistan's powerful chief of army staff, Gen Ashfaq Kiyani, at his headquarters in Rawalpindi shortly before President Barack Obama's announcement.

Gen Kiyani had pledged that Pakistan's forces will attack all Taliban factions attacking Nato forces in Afghanistan, she said.

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For some reason Pakistan is concerned about US forces entering their territory in hot pursuit of the enemy. Of course, the best way to avoid that is having Pakistan forces in place to intercept the miscreants. Pakistan officials do express reasonable concerns about Obama's proposed withdrawal date.