The Obama administration’s efforts in Afghanistan and Pakistan continue to be hamstrung by some pretty fundamental disagreements about what’s important here:
A major concern is that the American offensive may push Taliban militants over the border into Baluchistan, a province that borders Waziristan in the tribal areas. The Pakistani Army is already fighting a longstanding insurgency of Baluch separatists in the province.
A Taliban spillover would require Pakistan to put more troops there, a Pakistani intelligence official said, troops the country does not have now. Diverting troops from the border with India is out of the question, the official said.
As long as Pakistan’s thinking about its national interest is dominated by India and the quest to gain control over Kashmir, it’s very hard to imagine them and us ending up eye-to-eye on how to think about Afghanistan.
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