THE FRUITS OF APPEASEMENT: TALIBAN SEIZE REGION WITHIN 70 MILES OF PAKISTAN'S CAPITAL

NYTIMES:

Taliban militants have established control of a strategically important area only 70 miles from the capital, law enforcement officials said Wednesday. The move is part of an unrelenting push by the Taliban toward the heart of Pakistan.

Heavily armed militants were patrolling villages and local police had retreated to their station houses in much of the city of Buner, a rural area adjacent to Swat, where the Taliban seized control from the Pakistani army in February, they said. Buner is a gateway to a major Pakistani city, Mardan.

“They take over Buner, then they roll into Mardan and that’s the end of the game,” a senior law enforcement official in the North West Frontier Province said.

The expansion of the Taliban into Buner comes 10 days after the government of President Asif Ali Zardari agreed to the introduction of Sharia law in Swat, a move that the Obama administration has criticized as too much of a concession to the Taliban.

• I GUESS THAT PRESSURING MUSHARRAF TO SPLIT HAVE ELECTIONS HAS TURNED OUT TO BE A BAD THING; AT LEAST WITH HIM IT WAS A STALEMATE.

• SINCE THE PRO-JIHADIST AND UTTERLY CORRUPT SCUM TOOK OVER THINGS HAVE GONE DOWNHILL FAST.

• IT'S WORKED OUT AS WELL AS ALLOWING HAMAS ON THE BALLOT.

• AND YES: I BLAME BUSH - WHO WAS NOT THE WARMONGER THE LEFT SAID HE WAS, BUT A HALF-ASSED DOVE WHO HAD US FIGHT WITH ONE HAND BEHIND OUR BACKS.

JUST IMAGINE: A NUCLEAR ARMED TALIBAN. THINK THEY'LL BE HAPPY JUST TO BLOW UP ANCIENT BUDDHAS!?!?

• I THINK IT IS WISE AND JUST AND RIGHT AND GOOD FOR THE USA TO ANNIHILATE THE TALIBAN NOW - BEFORE THEY GET NUKES; (WE SHOULD HAVE DONE THIS IN OCTOBER 2001!).

• IT IS NOT WISE OR JUST OR RIGHT OR GOOD TO WAIT FOR THEM TO NUKE US OR AN ALLY.

• DITTO IRAN.

• THE LEFT WOULD RATHER RETALIATE FOR A NUKE ATTACK THEN PREEMPTIVELY ATTACK.

• THAT'S INSANE.