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Star Trek fans know it as the Prime Directive: that there should be no interference with the internal affairs of other civilizations. (Given the frequency with which captains Kirk, Picard, et. al., violate it, however, the Prime Directive seems more like a Prime Suggestion.) Since human beings have yet to explore very far beyond Earth, pondering an interplanetary noninterference policy of our own may seem a little premature - at least until we've mastered warp drives and phasers...
...Islamabad on Feb. 9, not as a columnist but as President Barack Obama's special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, will have to deal with ugly reality on the ground. Faced with a failing Afghanistan, the U.S. needs Pakistan's government and military leadership to work together to destroy al-Qaeda and Taliban sanctuaries along the lawless northwestern border between the two countries, crack down on Islamic militants at home and protect the country's nuclear bombs...
...after the fall of its favored partner, army general Pervez Musharraf, and the assassination of his would-be successor, Benazir Bhutto, with whom the U.S. hoped to work closely. Since Bhutto's death, a weak elected government and a recalcitrant military have failed to check the easy movement of al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters in and out of Afghanistan. That has forced the U.S. military to launch targeted missile strikes on Pakistani soil, a policy that has enraged local public opinion...
...flaws, says Riedel, "he gets it: he knows this is as much his war as it is ours." Zardari can't ignore the now routine terrorist strikes within Pakistan; suicide bombers have attacked major cities, killing hundreds. Besides, since Bhutto's death, Zardari is at the top of al-Qaeda's hit list. Because of a sense of self-preservation, or a commitment to responsible leadership, he has promised to crack down on terrorist groups...
...surprisingly, Hamas disputes the Israeli account. One Gaza commander in the Izzedin al-Qassam brigades, Hamas' fighting force, said the Islamists' plan had been to draw Israeli troops into the crowded urban neighborhoods of Gaza City, where the Israelis would lose the protection of helicopter gunships circling overhead. "We were fighting a modern 21st-century army, and we're just a guerrilla resistance movement," he says. "What did you expect - for us to stand in a field and wait for the Israelis to mow us down?" Indeed, in the classic guerrilla playbook, the insurgent army avoids going...