actually wised up, got the hell out of Iraq, and decided to go back and finish the job in Afghanistan that we should have focussed on from the beginning?

TOO DAMN BAD!!!! Pakistan vies with Israel for being the worst ally the US could possibly have. Pakistan is eager to take billions of dollars in US aid while providing support for the Taliban and Al Qaeda, mouthing platitudes that they really, really want to find Osama bin Laden. Pakistan's ISI supported the Taliban and helped them come to power in Afghanistan in the first place, with the assistance of the Pakistani army. The Afghanistan-Pakistan border has always been porous, so much so that the Pakistanis allowed bin Laden to escape over the border into Pakistan from Tora Bora. If we are to really deal with Al Qaeda and the Taliban, we need to deal with the Pakistan-Afghanistan border regions, and we need to get out of the same tired mold of supporting a leader instead of a nation. Musharraf is NOT Pakistan. Mubarrak is NOT Egypt. Maliki is NOT Iraq. Ahmadinajad is NOT Iran. The US always seems to end up supporting a person over a process. No wonder people around the world find our talk about democracy to be confusing and contradictory. We tell them that we want them to have free and fair elections, but if they choose someone we don't like, we immediately try to take them down. Once they have someone we approve of, or at least can stomach, we support them no matter what they do. Did anyone see that Karzai fired the chief prosecutor in Afghanistan yesterday, just after that man declared he would be a candidate in the presidential elections next year?

If we want to deal with other nations, especially in areas like the Middle East, and build stability, we need to start supporting processes, not individuals. Maybe Pakistan would shape up if we made it clear we support a democratic process, and not a man who lies to our faces while he steals our money, a man who took power in a coup and manipulated elections.