Threats to Set the Entire Middle East Afire

~ are proceeding apace, thank you ~

America's fearless & determined leader has hatched a plan, in the wake of Bhutto's assassination, to invade Pakistan with special CIA & U.S. military forces & take out Islamic extremists before they completely infiltrate Musharref's dictatorship ~ er, government, & capture the Big Prize, nuclear weapons.

Having established that he doesn't need anyone's permission to do so, y'understand, as long as the operations are kept covert.

The New York Times (risks being called "traitorous" again) & published the story, evoking some bluster from Pakistan, which does not welcome more U.S. meddling/interference in the region (surprise).

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/washington/06terror.html

Pakistan begs to differ: "'The government has said it so many times,' Arshad said. 'No foreign forces will be allowed to operate inside Pakistan.'"

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/01/06/asia/AS-GEN-Pakistan-US-Militants.php

Some Americans with experience in these matters & who actually think such covert maneuvers & interference with sovereign nations' affairs can be a good idea ~ um, think, in this case, it is not:

"There was a time where aggressive, kinetic counter-terrorism operations in Pakistan could have been effective. We've long since past it."

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/01/uh-oh-us-comman.html

The same may be said of Bushco's misadventures in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan & Pakistan so far. We know they want to leave office waving the bloody scalp of Bin Laden, so history won't regard them as the most miserable failure of an American Administration ever, having chased a gang of rag-tag bandidoes across the globe to no particular effect, trashing Americans' legal rights & bankrupted the country in the pursuit of Empire, but it remains to be seen whether bumbling around & starting fires in dry regions hasn't prolonged other American mistakes in the region & just made matters worse.