Pakistan's Downward Spiral
By Douglas Farah
It is difficult in the best of times to get good information from the border areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan, but my sources who visit the region regularly said the situation is even worse than the dire situation already written about in numerous publications.
The question is rapidly becoming whether the forced marriage with Musharraf has reached its useful end, given his constant and not so private dalliance with the Taliban. I would argue it has, but the divorce is likely to be messy.
It seems that Musharraf's perception is that India is his main enemy, and the Afghan government, the United States and NATO are heavily tilted toward his enemy. So he has reached out to the Taliban on several fronts. In fact, the ties were never really cut. ISI had a role in protecting the Taliban leadership during the U.S.-led occupation, but were not allowed to help al Qaeda, at least not overtly.
One of the more interesting accounts is in the Asia Times, describing a more or less formal alliance with the Taliban while the Taliban separates itself from al Qaeda. My full blog is here.
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