Quote Originally Posted by Global Scout View Post
Sadly this is true, but the winds "seem" to be changing in Pakistan ever so gradually. If Pakistan quits providing support to the Taliban, would the Taliban stand even a remote chance of winning? I see a lot of talk about strategy, seems to me that the strategic center of gravity isn't in Afghanistan, but Pakistan and if we get that right the Taliban will lose.
I think we lose sight of the real problem when we say that "Pakistan" supports the Taliban. If support for the Taliban were a policy of the Pakistani government, the possibility of changing that policy would be open. It might be more accurate, though, to say that portions of the Pakistani populace, the Pakistani military, the ISI, and other government entities support the Taliban, and the government lacks the capacity to control these portions or to compel them to stop supporting the Taliban. This is a bit more complicated: we may be able to pressure the Pakistani government into changing its policies, but if that government lacks the capacity to enforce its policies it really doesn't matter.