The Pakistan problem

Today’s most important news story appears in the Washington Post, here’s the lede:

“U.S. intelligence officials have concluded that elements of Pakistan’s military intelligence service provided logistical support to militants who staged last month’s deadly car bombing at the Indian Embassy in Afghanistan’s capital, U.S. officials familiar with the evidence said yesterday.

The finding, based partly on communication intercepts, has dramatically heightened U.S. concerns about long-standing ties between Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency, or ISI, and Taliban-allied groups that are battling U.S. forces in Afghanistan, according to two U.S. government officials briefed on the matter.” Pakistan is the most difficult foreign policy problem to solve: an unstable, nuclear-armed state. But it is imperative the Pakistani government act against the ISI which all too often operates as a state within a state.