that Americans are/will be willing to pay in a time frame that our political system and culture will understand and accept.

A nuclear Pakistan is not a threat to the United States, you say, and, from that, I must assume that your attitude is "To hell with the rest of the world". Pakistan and Israel are nuclear powers and Iran is well on the way to becoming one, despite what Obama threatened yesterday and Israel's belligerent warnings to Israel. If any of these fanatics get a rush of blood to the head and chooses to go nuclear, all the countries in the Eastern Mediterranean will be ruined. In addition, devastation will also be brought further west by the winds so that contamination could extend as far west in the Med. to Portugal, not to mention the North African countries just across the Med. from southern Europe. India, next door to Pakistan, would also be caught in this apocalypse. That's OK then because you folk (volk) in the US would be nice and safe although it's American arrogance and bungling that would have precipitated this catastrophe.

RebecaLouise, if you return to this thread perhaps you could answer a question that has always puzzled me. The United States is half-way around the world from these hot spots where people have been at each other's throats long before the State of Israel was founded in l948. To cut to the chase, why is America so heavily involved in a region so far from the American home and why is it continuing to exacerbate the tensions between countries where religion is used as a badge of hatred. If you don't see my question perhaps someone else would like to explain the American position which is leeching billions of dollars from the USA in propping up one side or the other in never-ending conflict.

Iran is also provocative and I'm no expert on any of this but the average citizen of the world recoils at the thought of further death and destruction. Obama has used the word "sacrosanct" in relation to Israel and American foreign policy, a word loaded with religious significance which indicates something sacred and inviolable. All the region of Palestine and Israel was once called The Holy Land but what has happened there in more recent times can only be described as hellish.

The article shows the general misunderstanding of the American public about Pakistan,Afghanistan and the people who rule it.

Myth1:"some where in Afghanistan/Pakistan border".

truth:It is Pakistan Tribal areas

Myth 2: The tribal areas of Pakistan are not governed by Central government of Pakistan from the days of British.

Truth: It is governed very closely by Political commissars called Agents appointed by the central government and normally they are from Intelligence or Army or Frontier constabulary.

Once the above myths are cleared , then one can clearly understand the truth about ground situation in Wazirstan, FATA, SWAT etc.

The governor who is appointed now in FATA is the one who used helicopter gunships against Nawab Bugti and killed him in the caves due to which Baluchistan is simmering.

Now the most important part which every American must know is the connection between Texan Oil lobby in America and their connection to the Saudi rulers whose name very few people know except prince bander.

has any American ever taught why there is NO TERRORIST ATTACK INSIDE DUBAI? Or Why the ruler of UAE , along with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan were funding/training the Taliban regime in Afghanistan which perpetrated the 9/11? Has anyone in America ever taught why the basement of Saudi embassy in Kabul was functioning as the intelligence hqrs of Taliban? What is Kunduz airlift by ISI of pakistan which evacuated people from Kunduz.Who were there in that airlift?

People in america must read the holy Quoran and then only they will understand the jehad,Kafir,infidel etc and also Islamic Caliphate. Then they will know how then Saudies fooled Bush into invading Iraq to get rid of Saddam but they miscalculated in the regime which followed. Also how they wanted the war with Iran and how Bush was obliging. Why?

The Americans must also go back to ABRAMOFF scandal and how prince bandar and ISI were involved in that and how it was hushed up in the guise of national security.

Then they will understand how this group will go to any lengths to stop OBAMA.

When Kennedy was in Berlin 45 years ago he sent a defiant message to the USSR that the western allies wouldn't be driven out of West Berlin and the Germans left to the mercies of the Soviet juggernaut. Barack is supposed to speak for one and a half hours so we'll have to wait to hear his defiant message. If it's all about more troops for Afghanistan, the article in the NYT about the narco-paradise that constitutes that faraway country should give him pause for thought. Hasta la vista.

Given the historical references in Prof. Cole's last paragraph, one wonders what more troops and money can accomplish in Afghanistan.

And does no one see the irony in all this, that the right still manages to perpetuate the myth that Obama is a Muslim?

His stances on Pakistan and Afghanistan, no matter how poorly-thought-out, should at the very least put those rumors to rest, or provide Dems with an automatic retort to that stupid idiocy.

Am I right? If you're with me, let's do a terrorist fist jab.

When are you guys going to realize that Obama has never had an original thought in his life?

What he is saying now is what the Left began saying after the occupation of Iraq began to go wrong, which is that the Administration should have gone after Osama in Afganistan/Pakistan. What Kerry said in 2004, he is saying now.

captainjohann. Fails to remember that the Saudis could have had the government they wanted in Iraq just by doing what they did in 1991 which was to come through with a few tens of billion to fund the occupation and buy a seat at the table for the Sunnis.