FROM PAKISTAN - AT 8:25 A.M. ET:  We're following events in Pakistan closely.  We all have memories of Cuba slipping into the Communist orbit, and South Vietnam going down the drain in 1975, largely as a result of our cutting off aid.  Each day in Pakistan seems to bring mixed news.  On the one hand, the Pakistani army has launched an offensive against the Taliban.  On the other hand, the extremist attacks continue.  From AP:

PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- Suspected Taliban militants stormed a depot in northwest Pakistan that handles supplied for NATO troops in neighboring Afghanistan on Wednesday and torched eight trucks, police said.

Elsewhere in the region, the Pakistani army battled militants in an offensive that has sent hundreds of thousands fleeing.

Attacks on terminals and trucks rolling through the Khyber Pass toward Afghanistan have intensified since last year, adding to concern that more regions along the Afghan border are slipping from government control and into the hands of Taliban and al-Qaida.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai warned Wednesday that the threat militants pose to both countries was very real.

"Terrorists and extremists are extending their reach in whole areas of our countries," Karzai told a regional economic conference in the capital, Islamabad.

COMMENT:  This is now Obama's war.  The new strategies being put in place are his, and he must take responsibility for them.  No more "BUSH did it!"  We wish the president well.  We want to win.  There used to be a time when politics stopped at the water's edge.  That spirit was destroyed by the left during the Vietnam War, but we still believe in it.  If the president succeeds, we will cheer him.  If he fails or falters, we will have other things to say.  I think most Americans agree with that approach.

May 13, 2009