摘要：As President Obama is in the midst of deciding whether additional U.S.combat forces are needed inAfghanistan in addition to the 21,000 troops recently committed, he must realize that additionalarmed forces are only a stopgap measure in Afghanistan's downward spiral into an 'undergoverned'failed state. Similarly, as Pakistan's fragile and fractured civilian government continues to appease theTehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an umbrella organization of Pakistani Pashtun tribesmen withTaliban cultural values led by Baitullah Mehsud and others, it comes closer to the concept of a"misgoverned" failed state, possessing a small arsenal of nuclear arms. The problem for the U.S.administration is that neither of these countries can be allowed to fall further into disrepair. At thesame time each requires a different and unique approach to the threat of "Talibanization" that faceseach country¡ªthe control of territory within each country by Islamic radicals seeking to impose theirultraconservative interpretation of shar'ia law onto the general populace. Generally acknowledged isthe belief that what has tentatively worked in Iraq, that is, the additional U.S. troops and employmentof former Sunni insurgents to help fight foreign fighters associated with al-Qaida, will not work ineither Afghanistan or Pakistan. While a regional approach to the conflict in these two countries iswarranted, Afghanistan and Pakistan are on two different economic, social, and political playingfields. Hence, there cannot be a one-size-fits-all solution for the two countries, especially one thatdraws on the Iraq playbook. In addition to its internal political problems, Pakistan also faces the issueof al-Qaida and Taliban training camps positioned in its literal back yard, the Federally AdministeredTribal Areas (FATA or Tribal Areas). Resolution of the War on Terror cannot come to fruitionwithout addressing the problems that exist in the Tribal Areas. This largely self-governed terrain hascome under Taliban influence and serves as a safe haven for Taliban and foreign-fighter cross-borderattacks into Afghanistan and, more recently, large-scale attacks into Pakistan itself
