The Most Important Place in the World

Original: The Most Important Place in the World

It's clear now that almost the entire U.S. foreign policy agenda is second in importance to Pakistan and Afghanistan. I steer clear from alarmism, but the events from Swat especially are sobering; Pakistan especially can destabilize large parts of the world should matters continue to deteriorate.

I like a lot of friends and acquaintances who have lived in Pakistan over the last decade or two are astounded by the turn of events from the days when we drove up to Swat, Chitral and environs for time off.

All of this is in the way of recommending Pam Constable's piece in today's Washington Post (in addition to var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www."); document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));