WHERE THE WAR ENDS:

Dozens killed in Pakistan clashes (BBC, 3/05/06)

Pakistani troops battled pro-Taleban militants near the Afghan border for a second day on Sunday in clashes which have killed more than 50 people.

Pakistani officials said 46 militants and five soldiers died after fighting erupted on Saturday, although some reports put the death toll at over 70.

Hundreds of people are said to have fled the scene in North Waziristan.

Correspondents says it is the fiercest fighting since the army went into the area in 2003 to drive militants out.

Bush Rules Out a Nuclear Deal With Pakistanis (ELISABETH BUMILLER and CARLOTTA GALL, 3/05/06, NY Times)

Mr. Bush showed strong support for Mr. Musharraf's efforts in combating militants, even though Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, and Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taliban leader, are believed to still be hiding in Pakistan. Without being specific, General Musharraf himself made reference to "slippages" in the past.

Mr. Bush said, "Part of my mission today was to determine whether or not the president is as committed as he has been in the past to bringing these terrorists to justice, and he is."

The Pakistani foreign minister, Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri, made clear that the two leaders had had a frank discussion, saying General Musharraf had made a "comprehensive and telling response" to American concerns about Pakistan's commitment to fighting terrorism.

"They had a level of discussion I had not seen before," he said, adding that General Musharraf shared intelligence and documentary evidence with Mr. Bush.

Pakistan had had to deal with 30,000 foreign fighters passing through from Afghanistan over the years, Mr. Kasuri said, had more troops in the border areas than foreign and Afghan forces together on the other side, and had lost 600 soldiers in fighting in Waziristan. That was more casualties than forces had taken across the border, he said.

Mr. Kasuri struggled to answer local journalists who asked if Pakistan had not been left empty-handed after the visit.

The Pakistanis had some cover while the WoT was being used as cover to regime change places like Iraq, Palestine, and Syria, but as that portion of the war winds down the finale will occur in the Tribal Regions. Until the militants there are dealt with Pakistan can't hope to be treated like a sovereign ally.

MORE:
U.S. Gives India Applause, Pakistan a Pat on the Back (SOMINI SENGUPTA, 3/05/06, NY Times)

President Bush leaves this region having declared India and Pakistan strategic partners. But his declarations spoke just as loudly of the shifting balance of power in the region, and the world.

It was India that appeared to come out the biggest winner this week. Pakistan walked away with little more than a mild pat on the back after Mr. Bush's visit on Saturday. While buttressing America's alliances in the region, Mr. Bush also took home a formidable political challenge to sell his nuclear deal with India to a skeptical Congress.

India could hardly be more pleased. "IND-US CIVILIZATION," screamed a front-page headline in The Times of India on Saturday, in joyous praise for what President Bush had bestowed on the nation.

Those gifts included a nuclear deal celebrated by Indian officials, elevation as a global leader, and nary a recriminatory word on the troubles in the disputed province of Kashmir. Indian backers of a United States-India partnership were elated.

"I think we have managed to get a rather good deal," a senior Indian official said, unwilling to disclose his name because the full details of the nuclear agreement had yet to be shared with the Indian Parliament. "This is from our point of view, a hard bargain."

In Pakistan, the difference was discerned. "One thing is very clear: The U.S. is keeping India and Pakistan at two different levels," said Hasan Askari Rizvi, an independent political analyst in Lahore.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 5, 2006 8:29 AM