Any time someone uses the word "control" in this sort of context there has to be a healthy appreciation for the extent to which some things are simply not controlled. I'm sure the usual suspects have a relationship with the extremists, and may have some influence, but the extent to which they exercise "control" is quite debatable. It's easy for outsiders to say, for example... we cannot control x, but y controls x and we can influence y, so all we have to do to get rid of x is to put enough pressure on y. It rarely works so simply in the real world, largely because "control" is often variable and incomplete.

Quote Originally Posted by omarali50 View Post
Its the ruling elites in the middle east and Pakistan who need the modern world more than the modern world needs them (what will they do with their oil? drink it?). This bluff is bound to be called at some point, why not now? If Western nations tell them it can't be done and let them figure out how to pay off the DPC, after a few Fridays, they will figure it out. The elites who cannot figure out even this are not going to be salvageable anyway (its like a "stress test" for the elite..one that even Egypt seems to have passed and places like Saudi Arabia are in no trouble at all).
I wouldn't want to lump the ruling elites of the Muslim world, or even the Muslim world in any sense, into one basket. Much of the Muslim world has no oil and no economic influence. Parts of that world have oil and influence... realistically those governments exist in symbiosis with the modern world and the need on either side is going nowhere. Different parts of that world need to be dealt with in different ways.

Quote Originally Posted by carl View Post
I spoke briefly to a Congressman last week about Pakistan and asked how long we were going to put up with Pak Army/ISI behavior. She hesitated for the briefest of moments and then responded with boilerplate about how the nukes must be kept out of the hands of terrorists. It was obvious that she didn't know what the General Sahibs have been up to. She was probably average in that respect. I figure until the average congressional representative knows, nothing will change. If the executive does make the case, those representatives will know immediately and the money will stop that day, the day after if the executive makes its case late in the afternoon.
I doubt that most Congressfolks know or care much about it. Until the US presence in Afghanistan is reduced to a level that no longer requires land supply routes it's not likely that the US will shake things up with Pakistan in any lasting way.

Once the US no longer requires Pakistani cooperation to supply forces in Afghanistan, it would be theoretically possible to stop all support to the Pakistani government. Of course if that started us on a road that ends up leading to an extremist takeover we might end up wondering whether that was the right decision...