The Afghan-Pakistan War ???

Power cuts fuel Pakistan's power struggle - The assassination attempt on the Prime Minister is the latest twist in a complex battle for influence , by Anatol Lieven - Times

Playing with firepower - President Bush is taking a big gamble in launching overt attacks on Pakistani territory , by Christina Lamb - Times

Pakistan Is the Problem - and Barack Obama seems to be the only candidate willing to face it.
At a recent dinner party in the British embassy in Kabul, one of the guests referred to "the Afghan-Pakistan war." The rest of the table fell silent. This is the truth that dare not speak its name. Even mentioning it in private in the Afghan capital's green zone is enough to solicit murmurs of disapproval , by Christopher Hitchens - Slate

Pakistan’s Dangerous Double Game - Unsure of Islamabad's loyalties, U.S. forces open up a more aggressive, controversial strategy in the tribal areas , by Ron Moreau and Mark Hosenball - Newsweek

The American War Moves to Pakistan - Bush's War Widens Dangerously - ...Its effects on Pakistan could be catastrophic, creating a severe crisis within the army and in the country at large. The overwhelming majority of Pakistanis are opposed to the U.S. presence in the region, viewing it as the most serious threat to peace , by Tariq Ali - Tomdispatch.com

Facing Islamist chaos and America's Rambo, Pakistan is turning to No 10 - Asif Ali Zardari will discuss his radical new vision in Downing Street today, knowing Washington can derail everything , by Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark - Guardian

Washington Is Risking War with Pakistan - As Wall Street collapsed with a bang, almost no one noticed that we're on the brink of war with Pakistan. And, unfortunately, that's not too much of an exaggeration , by Robert Baer - TIME

Losing the Afghan-Pakistan War? The Rising Threat - The situation in Afghanistan has been deteriorating for nearly half a decade, and is now reaching a crisis level....the next President will face a critical challenge in dealing with a war that is probably being lost at the political and strategic level, and is not being won at the tactical level , by Anthony Cordesman - CSIS Report

Anthony Cordesman has called it the Afghan-Pakistan War since at least October 2007, although in December 2007 he called it the Afghan-Pakistani Conflict. Back in May 2007 he called it the Afghan (Pakistan) Conflict. CSIS Archived Reports.

Pakistan's 'bleakest moment' - ...Proverbially listed as a failing state, this precariously poised country could now be in a downward spiral towards becoming a failed state , by Ahmed Rashid - BBC

Pakistan on the Brink - Mismanaged “war on terror” has stirred extremism, threatening to rip Pakistan apart , by Ahmed Rashid - Yale Global

US fishing in Pakistan - The United States has just invaded Cambodia. The name of Cambodia this time is Pakistan, but otherwise it’s the same story as in Indochina in 1970 , by William Pfaff - Khaleej Times

U.S. military advisors may soon head to Pakistan - The U.S. and Pakistan have cleared remaining obstacles, so the long-delayed team may arrive within weeks , by Peter Spiegel - LAT

Some comments from Pakistan

Is there War On Terror yet? - The search for Osama bin Laden is a hoax. The US has been in occupation of Afghanistan for seven years, and not one Allied soldier is involved in this search. Thousands of Afghans have been killed, but not one has lost his life defending Osama. NATO is here only to crush the resistance to illegitimate US occupation of Afghanistan. And Pakistan was slowly coerced to join, as an abettor in the crime , by Shahid Aziz - The Nation

Land of conspiracies - In a recent email exchange, one of the ideological founders of the country's largest left-oriented parties said that he believed that the "core strategic objective of the US" was to "establish its control over the Pakistan Army – to weaken it when it is strong and strengthen it when it is weak but maintain total control over it." , by Ahmed Quraishi - The News

Timidity abroad, feudal ferocity at home - It would appear that the wimpish political leadership, in the wake of the no-nonsense statements of the army and air chiefs, has finally reconciled to the fact that the nation could not continue to accept the expanding US military intrusions into Pakistan , by Shireen M Mazari - The News

The Marriott Attack

Strike at 'den of Western decadence' - On the day Pakistan's President condemned terrorism, militants gave a deadly response , by Jason Burke - Guardian

Taliban message to India too - This was coming for a while; most people could see it approaching almost inevitably. To my mind, the horrendous suicide assault on the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad is a direct fallout of recent US military strikes inside Pakistani territory along the Afghan border, of the Pakistani Army’s own operations in the Waziristan region and probably also of President Asif Ali Zardari’s strong appeal this very afternoon against terror. This is the Taliban telling all of us: Here we are, let us see what you do to us.

Ahmed Rashid, Lahore-based journalist, scholar and author of the acclaimed The Taliban, spoke to Sankarshan Thakur a few hours after the Marriott attack - The Telegraph, Calcutta

Bloodshed of desperation becomes the real threat to Pakistan - ...This is the real threat in Pakistan: not imminent “Islamic revolution”, state failure or loss of control of nuclear weapons, but a spread of terror, with sooner or later – as in Algeria and elsewhere – the State in desperation resorting to counter-terror in response. The State will survive but the bloodshed could dwarf anything seen since the loss of East Pakistan , by Anatol Lieven - Times

Pakistan braced for new wave of violence - Pakistan's intelligence and security officials yesterday warned that the weekend suicide bombing at Islamabad's Marriott hotel, which killed at least 53 people, could be the start of a wave of attacks targeting the country's largest cities , by Farhan Bokhari - FT