Pakistan's Double Game

Today on the Af-Pak front:

The top U.S. military officer on Thursday accused Pakistan’s military intelligence agency of directing the operations of the group blamed for last week’s attack on the U.S. embassy in Kabul, warning that the time has come for Islamabad to stop supporting terrorists.

“The Haqqani network acts as a virtual arm of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency,” Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee. He said the agency was implementing Pakistani government policy in its support of the group, which has also been blamed for numerous other deadly attacks on U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

“The support of terrorism is part of their national strategy. That’s got to fundamentally shift,” Mullen said. “By exporting violence, they have eroded their internal security and their position in the region. They have undermined their international credibility and threatened their economic well-being.”

Mullen’s warning — the bluntest yet from any senior U.S. official — was echoed by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who repeated his own warning first delivered Tuesday that the United States would act unilaterally to stop the attacks if Pakistan does not crack down on the group, which is based in the lawless tribal areas near the Afghan border.

Our Afghan strategy is founded on something we have never had, Pakistani cooperation. Their double, triple game ensures that no government not strongly allied to Islamabad can ever govern Afghanistan peacefully. Unfortunately for everyone, that means nobody will govern Afghanistan peacefully for a long time to come.