View From The Top, 9 October 2008

-- Admiral Mullen is not optimistic on Afghanistan, at all. Nor should he be. Some interesting comments, though. Apparently there's been a bit of a vigorous debate on the part of all NATO participants on how to best prosecute the counter-narcotics effort. He's also pessimistic about Pakistan's long-term effort in cleaning out FATA and NWFP, since that nation is also in a big-time economic crisis.

-- Arabic Media Shack has a fantastic post on the reality of Middle Eastern public opinion. Also has some good insight on the Egyptian book market. AMS is always a good read.

-- Start out at Blackfive, but follow through on his links to learn about a mini-feud re: Congressional "support" of the troops. I'm so sick and tired of the term "support". Let's just put it this way: I think what IAVA is doing is noble-minded but statistically idiotic. Rarely is military policy so black-and-white as to be categorized as "pro-troops" or "anti-troops".

-- Some DangerRoom guys are coming to Boulder. I'm sure as heck gonna be there. It's at the CU Law school, 1830 on Friday the tenth (tomorrow).

-- It wouldn't be a week at this blog without a link to something Michael Yon's done. Takeaway line: "It has become clear to me that we're losing this war. But losing doesn't mean lost."

-- And finally, read this opinion piece from one Mushfiq Murshed about the need for Pakistan to "own the war on terror". It is fantastic. Fan-frickin-tastic. His key point: Pakistanis, as a people need to get their s**t together and have some popular support in the fight against the terrorists. Murshed thinks it's to the government detriment that they haven't had firm leadership to help unify the country. The piece also posits that Musharraf's hands-off policy in FATA and NWFP are to blame for the current troubles. A healthy-sized blurb:

However [critics] fail to realize that any respite in military action, as was suggested by the adviser on interior affairs, Rehman Malik, for the month of Ramadan, will only provide an opportunity for the militants to regroup, rearm and reorganize their flanks. Whereas the need for economic aid is undeniable, it should not supplant but supplement military action.

The previous government attempted to implement a similar indulgent policy in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). The fallout has been negative. The erosion of the writ of the state is no longer a phenomenon restricted to the tribal areas as it has spread to the settled districts of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP). With it comes oppression of the weak, women and minorities as well as vigilante justice such as public executions and floggings under the pretence of enforcing Shariah.

The failure to pre-empt the spread of extremist dogma within the country by the previous government resulted in avoidable incidents such as the Lal Masjid debacle and led to a phenomenal increase in terrorist attacks.

RTWT.