Rice and Pakistan

It's an odd time for the US to be putting Pakistan, President Ali Asif Zardari, and the ISI in its current position to choose, and it seems similar to the period after September 11 when the US (in the form of Armitage, according to Musharraf) presented Musharraf with few options but to go along with the US. At this point, I presume that Rice, Admiral Mullen, Bush, etc. are pushing the Pakistanis to crack down on various groups for their own good. With militants active in the north against the Americans and sheltering the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, and with groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba conducting attacks in India and it and others operating in Kashmir, the Americans are likely warning that Pakistan will face further incursions by the Americans and future assaults by the Indians if it doesn't crack down.

I know that Rice, et al are knowledgeable about the regional balance of power, but one aspect of Pakistan's grand strategy for years has been to shelter, train/arm/fund, and ignore proxy groups that target India and Afghanistan employing asymmetrical tactics. Asking the Pakistanis to surrender one aspect of their foreign policy via threats and intimidation strikes me as odd. If it were to be successful, the Americans would need to press India and Afghanistan to meet and talk with the Pakistanis and to make concessions that would appease the Pakistanis. Certainly, there are areas inside Pakistan that the Pakistanis cannot control, but its presidents and security chiefs made rational decisions and found merit in proxy groups. To strike at them and ease tension, a regional solution should be formulated to ameliorate Pakistan's justified security concerns. And even Iran could help this process.