(H/Ts – Allahpundit and Geoff/JunkYardBlog)
The AP decided to throw a lit Molotov cocktail into the complex and volatile US/Pakistan relations and internal Pakistani politics and make public a 3-year-old memo authorizing incursions into Pakistan under certain conditions (MSNBC version/USA Today version. As Geoff pointed out, this was an open secret that, as long as it stayed in the shadows, wouldn’t screw up relations too much.
Now that this is out in the open, we can’t exactly do that anymore while providing Pakistani President strongman Gen. Pervez Musharraf plausable deniability. Instead, we have three choices: make it a very official joint effort, with the certainty that the Islamokazis that have been targeting Musharraf will redouble their efforts to overthrow him; increase the likelyhood that we and the Pakistani Army exchange gunfire; or make the entirety of Pakistan a safe haven for Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
