Abe, I wanted to add to your post. Yesterday, newly elected Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari met with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in London in order to enlist support against American cross-border raids into his country. In July, President Bush reportedly ordered U.S. forces to step up the incursions into Pakistan to prevent the Taliban and al-Qaeda from using that country’s tribal areas as a base from which to launch attacks into neighboring Afghanistan. The United States can claim some success in keeping the militants off balance with raids and missile strikes, but they have predictably inflamed Pakistani public opinion.

That’s why Pakistan’s military said that it might attack U.S. forces operating inside the country. “Pakistani troops on the spot will retaliate for any actions across the border,” said Islamabad’s chief military spokesman last Friday. Since then, there have been reports, denied by the Pentagon, that on Monday Pakistani troops fired on two American helicopters that had crossed into Pakistani airspace.

“Britain has always had a better understanding of the sub-continent than any other country,” President Zardari said yesterday after meeting with Brown. “So if they take our point of view and put it across to the world I think it will be better.” What would really be better is Islamabad taking control of its border areas and killing the militants. At present, Islamabad is letting them run free, and, for this reason and others, they are clearly prevailing against Kabul. As reported in the New York Times on Sunday, a Western diplomat said that Afghanistan is in its worst condition since 2001.

There is the complicating issue of civilian deaths on both sides of the border. Today, Defense Secretary Gates, speaking in Kabul, offered his “sincere condolences and personal regrets for the recent loss of innocent life.” The United States must do more to minimize these casualties, but there would be far fewer of them if we stop the Taliban from using Pakistan as a sanctuary.

And this leads us back to President Zardari. While he was in London talking with Brown, Admiral Mike Mullen was in Islamabad providing assurances that the United States would respect Pakistan’s sovereignty. That promise, however, is a mistake. As you correctly note, Abe, Zardari’s government “is only half in the fight” and is not taking us seriously. Nonetheless, it has an obligation to prevent the Taliban from turning its territory into a staging area for attacks on a neighbor. If he can’t do that, we have an obligation to pursue the militants wherever they may lead us. So the attacks into Pakistan must continue for now. No one wants to fight Pakistanis. But we also cannot lose Afghanistan.