Taliban Arrests in Pakistan a Bad Thing?

InstaBud-D here again.  The London Times has an interesting take on the spectacular arrests in Pakistan last week.  The gist of their point is that Pakistan is arresting Taliban leaders that were trying to work a deal with the Karzai government, and that Pakistan is arresting them because they don't want the conflict, and more importantly, the billions of dollars in US aid to fight it, to stop.

I have no idea if the leaders being arrested are the more moderate ones or not, but it is odd that Pakistan can roll up all these guys at this time.

Positive News out of Pakistan

I don't know if we can bank on this, but Fox News reports that villages are rising up against the Taliban's awesome technique of winning friends by blowing up mosques. They mention that the villagers get brave when the army remains in the area. Sort of like the The Surge in Iraq.

Maybe it doesn't mean anything, but good news as far as it goes.

Pakistan Collapsing III

Wow, it appears that Pakistan doesn't even want to fight. Long War Journal has the depressing details. Read past the headlines: Rangers for Pakistan doesn't mean the same thing as Rangers for the US.