The guys at Counterterrorism Blog had noted that the so-called “Waziristan Agreement” between Pakistan and the regions tribal leaders was a failure. This has allowed many of the usual suspects to reconstitute in the northern mountain regions of the district. Their sources indicated that the Pakistani Army was getting its butt chewed by the Taliban, al Qaeda and tribal fanatics over the previous 4 years and ended up having to pay tribute in the form of cash payments to the Taliban to rebuild destroyed structures and return all of the arms that were seized during the previous years’ operations!
A report in the Feb. 19 NYTimes is supported by David Gartenstein-Ross and reflects the logical continuation of the resurgence of both the Taliban and al Qaeda in the relative safety of that province.
While the moonbats will go loony, this incident with Cheney is probably a minor action in an already developing strategic plan (no doubt summarized for a squirming Mubarrak during his meeting with Cheney) that will involve us as the hammer in that province, probably with air power and targeted special ops airborne missions.