From DoD Buzz:Influential former Obama administration advisor on South Asia, Bruce Riedel, told a Washington audience yesterday of the very real possibility that Islamic jihadists could seize control in Pakistan. News of a deadly bomb attack today at a hotel in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, the latest in a series of terrorist bombings, certainly provides deadly confirmation of the risks.
Al Qaeda and its network of Islamic terrorist groups has shifted the epicenter of the global jihad to Pakistan, home now to a “hothouse of terrorist groups unrivalled anywhere else in the world,” Riedel said. “The jihadists smell blood in the water, they think they’re on the brink of a game changer in the struggle between Al Qaeda and the rest of the world.” It’s not inevitable, nor is it imminent, but the danger of a jihadist takeover in Pakistan or of it dissolving into a chaotic failed state is very real, he said, speaking at Brookings where he is a senior fellow. Riedel recently chaired an interagency review of U.S. policy in Afghanistan and Pakistan for the Obama administration; he told the audience he was not speaking for the administration.
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My Comment: The Jihadists may have been suffering some recent setbacks in Pakistan, but they definitely do see an opportunity. A significant portion of the country supports them, and they have the necessary resources and manpower to sustain a long term conflict. The Pakistani Army and Government do not.