Apparently, when you’re the country that created and now shields the Taliban from US forces, you’re expecting a lot more than lip service!!!

And this is yet another illustration of how pointless the war in Afghanistan has become: we’re funding both sides, whether through arms sales to Pakistan or heroin purchases from the various Afghan warlords who actually control most of the country.

Gorilla says: “There are only floods in this vale of tears!!!”

But so far the international response has been piffling.

Part of this no doubt is due to disaster fatigue, but much of it reflects a total lack of confidence in the government of Pakistan.

That government is seen as unable to cope and corrupt.

Several of the regions affected by the floods are essentially no-go zones, ruled by Islamic fanatics who want to overthrow the regime.

These people are providing the only aid available, while simultaneously telling the regime that they should refuse aid from the West.

It’s difficult to see how Pakistan ever becomes a functioning state under these circumstances, much less how the US and its allies will be able to contain fanaticism that exports terror to the region and around the world.

Gorilla says: “Losing hearts and minds a third time seems to be our charmless lot in life!”

It’s a curious irony that the mosque in question became a magnet for Jihadniks worldwide, some of whom apparently went back to Afghanistan and Pakistan to wreak havoc on those countries.

Gorilla says: “When you can’t invade Hamburg, your troops become hamburger!”

And he’s not happy about the blame game, whether it consists of doubts about Pakistan in the Wikileaks material or the British PM saying that Pakistan is complicit in the export of terror…

But there’s a grain of truth in his remarks: “I believe that the international community, which Pakistan belongs to, is in the process of losing the war against the Taliban. And that is, above all, because we have lost the battle for hearts and minds.”

Gorilla says: “Hard to disagree when we’re funding both sides! And those pesky civilians keep getting killed and getting angry!”

This dialogue’s been going on for 60 odd years, interspersed by 3 wars, and so far it hasn’t led to lasting peace in the region.

The Pakistanis want Kashmir back, the Indians won’t give it up.

The Indians want Pakistan to control its secret services’ involvement in terror bombings in India, Pakistan isn’t too interested.

Both sides are engaged in a proxy war in Afghanistan.

Both sides are also indirectly in conflict over water resources.

But they’re talking and that in itself is not a bad thing.

The old jealousies and the hurt feelings after partition may one day lead to a recognition that all the nationalism in the world does not bring prosperity, while prosperity brings with it a responsibility to do more than posture.

The same thing is true of Israel and the Palestinians, although neither side is at the moment serious about peace.

Gorilla says: “And we could be talking with Iran, but somehow we just can’t get past the past!”

It’s been clear for some time that there is no military solution in Afghanistan. We simply don’t have enough troops to control the country.

There also appears to be no political solution, since the corrupt Afghan government wouldn’t last a week without the presence of the US military.

Gorilla says: “The longest war in American history continues on the road to nowhere!”

The difficulty with such an obvious bluff is that last weekend’s terror attack was directly traceable to Pakistan, and there’s not much we can do, short of invading the country, to encourage the Pakistanis to defeat the Islamic extremists in their midst.

The Pakistani government’s afraid of a civil war, while the Pakistani military is still playing all sides against the middle in hopes that some advantage can be gained in a post-US Afghanistan.

Instead, we get yet another pointless, inside Washington State v. Defense argument, wherein the Defense Secretary suggests we’re ready to take orders as far as military assistance to Pakistan is concerned.

Will we cut off such assistance if the next Pakistan-based attack is more devastating? Will we declare war on Pakistan?

Of course not, so why engage in this kind of idiotic, defensive rhetoric? Is it to make the Administration sound tougher to voters in November?

The latest terrorist attack should suggest to our leaders and the American people that the Administration’s doing a pretty good job of defending the country against terrorism.

What’s still lacking is an intelligence community that can deliver the goods in terms of identifying, locating, and eliminating terrorist leaders inside Pakistan.

Gorilla asks: “Why not be a bit more offensive and ask Panetta’s boys and girls why they still can’t find their own shadows?”

1) Law enforcement works. The terrorist was tracked down and captured within a few days. Terrorism of this sort is essentially a law enforcement issue: military weaponry, torture, and a reduction in civil liberties makes no difference whatever in fighting terrorism.

2) Pakistan is the number one source of terrorists in the world. It has a dysfunctional government, a military that cannot be trusted, and we’re stuck with them. Sooner or later, we’ve got to decide whether we want to take the fight against terrorism into Pakistan, or attempt to contain the problem within Central Asia. Predator drones aren’t any more effective against terrorism than the Jonas Brothers.

3) We have to accept that sometimes the terrorists will get lucky; this time they didn’t.

4) Religious extremism is the greatest threat to freedom in the world today.

5) We need a new strategy, one that sees terrorism as a problem, one of many we don’t adequately address. Terrorism is not and has never been an existential threat to the US. Afghanistan and Iraq have been and are total failures; they do not address terrorism in any way. The US military has proven inept at nation building. The US intelligence community has not been sufficiently successful in tracking down and capturing terrorists. We’re fighting small, mostly ineffective groups of no-hopers and wasting trillions of dollars on defense systems that are wholly inadequate and wholly outdated for the job at hand. A bit of genuine accountability for these failures would be most welcome from our leaders, but the last 10 years have demonstrated convincingly that accountability is not part of the landscape in Washington.

Gorilla says: “Add your own lessons, and hope someone in power will eventually get an education!”

What’s interesting about this one is that the targets were Indian, which might indicate, yet again, that the Pakistan-India conflict is now being brought to Afghanistan by the Pakistani government.

Of course, happy bilateral talk also coincided with the bombing, so it seems clear both sides in that conflict are preparing for the day after the US departs.

Gorilla says: “Pakistan’s playing the middle against both sides!”