Pakistan and Terror

Investor's Business Daily:

In the wake of 9-11, hatched in Pakistan, we gave that Islamic state a pass, plus billions in aid, for a promise to dismantle its terror factories. But those factories are still active and may be behind Britain's 7-7. What's more, investigators believe they're churning out terrorists to also kill Americans in this country. It turns out that at least three of the London bombers traveled to Pakistan a year before the attacks, and two of them may have trained at a Pakistani madrassa run by al-Qaida-linked militant groups — Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Jaish-e-Mohammad — which Islamabad was supposed to have banned years ago. The radical school is based in Lahore, Pakistan, where the bombers recently spent three months. They returned to Britain in February.

As I have mentioned before, Pakistan is a major problem, and it is very difficult to determine how to deal with that problem. I am inclined to believe that Musharraf is sincerely trying to battle Al-Qaida terrorism. For one thing, they have tried to kill him several times now. There seem to be few Pakistani's allied with him in this struggle though, and that is the real issue. It both prevents him from taking significant action, and makes it tough for us to apply more pressure. We don't necessarily want to distabilize his rule at this point. Nuclear Pakistan as an Islamist state is a nightmare scenario. Nonetheless, the London bombings highlight the fact that the status quo is not tenable. Something has to change. At this point, it may be appropriate to reassess the risks and demand more action from Musharraf.