Over the weekend, Pakistan’s President Zardari appeared on “60 Minutes” and told America that his country has been “in denial” about the danger posed by Taliban militants in the tribal region on Afghanistan’s border, and that he himself sees the threat for what it is. How disheartening then to read this today: “Pakistani officials concluded a peace deal with a Taliban-linked group that will lead to the enforcement of Islamic law in a part of the country that is supposed to be fully under government control.” In the Swat Valley  only 150 miles north of Islamabad – female education will be outlawed, as will most forms of recreational entertainment, and public executions will continue with the regional government’s consent. (UPDATE: I was corrected by a commenter on this point and referred to this.)

As is always the case with Pakistan, criticism of its leadership must allow for the tinderbox reality of that land. Whatever stability the country has is often immediately undermined when Islamabad overtly cooperates with Washington. (Not that this fragile state of affairs prevented George W. Bush’s critics from lambasting his “coddling” of  Pervez Musharraf.)

Moreover, there are reports that Taliban members are  increasingly becoming al Qaeda members and contributing to a lethal “shadow army” that is, according to Bill Roggio in the Washington Times, “well trained and equipped, and has defeated the Pakistani Army in engagements in North and South Waziristan, Bajaur, Peshawar, Khyber, and Swat.” If the Pakistani Army is simply being overrun by the Taliban and al Qaeda’s superior fighting forces then no amount of American hectoring of Zardari is going to change things. President Obama has made a show of pledging big amounts of non-military aid to Pakistan. But unless we want to see Taliban rule creep closer and closer to Islamabad, he’s going to have to move past the P.R. gestures and help Zardari regain control of his own country.