Pakistan Redux, Senate Seat for Sale

One of my greatest pleasures every morning is sitting down with a cup of fresh coffee and reading the newspaper. Usually I see that the topics I chose to write about here are reported and discussed further, which makes me less grumpy and more likely to brew a second cup as a reward.

Pakistan is more of a problem for the US than any other country, and they are at a crossroads. They helped create the Taliban and other extremist groups, and have supporters of those trains of thought throughout their government and military. One view is expressed by the current President, Asif Ali Zardari, who lost his wife to a rrorist attack. He points out that Pakistan has 150,000 troops fighting along the Afghanistan border, more than there are NATO troops, and that the civilian population is suffering as the extremist groups move away from the border area and move deeper into settled land.

In a recent column,Fareed Zakaria points out that, as with the Mumbai tragedy, all roads lead through the Pakistani military. The civilian government seems to be an observer in all of this, and " Which would be worse: if the Pakistani military knew about this operation in advance, or if they didn't?" Part of the mystery may be solved with the arrest of 22 people in Kashmir, one who is supposed to be the mastermind behind the commando raids on Mumbai. So, some tough choices for both the Pakistani government and Obama's policy makers in the coming months, that may leave both Zardari and Afghanistan's Karzai to twist in the wind...

Some good books to read are: Descent into Chaos by Ahmed Rashid, on the current situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan; The Assasins' Gate by George Packer, on America in Iraq; and Ghost Wars by Steve Coll, on the history of Afghanistan from the Soviet invasion to

September 10, 2001.

Last night's headlines were about the solidarity shown by Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, for the Republic Window and Door workers occupying the building where they used to work. This morning the big news is that Federal prosecutors woke the governor up from a sound sleep to arrest him in front of his wife, and hand him an indictment before hauling him off to jail. As Gregory Tejeda put it in his Chicago Argus blog: "I just find it odd that the U.S. attorney’s investigation of state government has been going on for years (and there have been many jokes made about Blagojevich’s alter ego as “Public Official A” throughout the era) and yet the only activity solid enough to warrant prosecution is something that has happened in the past couple of weeks?"

Either this guy is brazen and doesn't care, or he is incredibly stupid. He's been under investigation for three years, and the feds claim that they have him on tape trying to sell to the highest bidder the Senate seat that is vacated by Barack Obama. Gee, this may put a taint of corruption on the whole appointing process, do you think? Since the Illinois governor was the sole person who could make the appointment, maybe they will let him do it from a prison cell. Well, if Ted Stevens could still be a Senator...