Pakistan’s existential threat

Nuclear-armed Pakistan is “unraveling at a frightening pace,” said USA Today in an editorial. After ceding the Swat Valley to the Taliban, “in a deluded belief it can appease its way to peace,” President Asif Ali Zardari’s government now faces Taliban militants occupying the Buner district, a short 60 miles from the capital, Islamabad. Pakistan has a “potent army”—and needs to use it.

The Taliban’s incursion into Buner may not be “quite as alarming” as it seems, said Britain’s The Independent in an editorial. Pakistan’s army is moving into the area, showing that it “intends to draw a line” there. And Islamabad has never been very far from traditional Taliban strongholds. Still, it’s a setback, and a sign of how “weak” Zardari is.

So, "willl Pakistan fall to the Taliban"? asked Britain’s The Guardian in an editorial. There's a striking contrast between America's panic and Pakistan's "positively lethargic" response, but let's take a reality check. Although parts of Pakistan are already lost to the Taliban, it’s “laughable” to suggest that the urban belt from Islamabad to Lahore would ever succumb to the Taliban’s sharia law.

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