A Turning Point In Pakistan, Ctd.

The news is not good. Ackerman predicts:

Beitullah Massoud is likely going to use his new Swat Valley safe haven to launch attacks against Zardari’s government based barely 100 miles away and to allow extremists a place to regroup before exfiltrating to neighboring Afghanistan to fight U.S., NATO and Afghan forces. And his allies are almost certain to consolidate their hold on Swat by murdering the opposition, as they’ve been doing: The Times notes that Swat elected a secular party in last year’s elections, but the Taliban started assassinating its members and supporters. This is how a nuclear-armed country slips into failed-statehood.

Joe Klein is similarly gloomy.