Can we make up our mind?

From CNN:

U.S. forces should go into Pakistan to rout al Qaeda from the safe haven it has found in the mountains on the border with Afghanistan, a co-chairman of the Iraq Study Group said.

Former Rep. Lee Hamilton, who also served as the vice chairman of the 9/11 commission, says the Iraq war distracted the United States when it had al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden on the run in the tribal region between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

He says it's now time to finish the job.

Clearly, ending the support the Taliban and Al Qaeda find in Pakistan is a key to this larger war. And yet, what is the mantra from the anti-war Left?

It's that Iraq is sinking into a civil war, our troops are stuck in the middle of it, and we must leave.

I don't know if Mr. Hamilton reads the news, but what kind of situation does he think US troops would be going into in NW Pakistan, in terrain much more inhospitable than Iraq?

From The Frontier Post today:

Seventeen security officials have been killed and 14 injured when miscreants attacked a convoy of security forces in Madakhel near Pak-Afghan border in North Waziristan tribal region on Wednesday, eyewitnesses said. According to details, armed men exploded a remote-controlled bomb and opened fire with automatic weapons on a security forces convoy in Madakhel area, killing 17 and wounding 13 security men. The convoy was heading to Miranshah, the center of North Waziristan, from the border areas of Lwara Mandi, when the gunmen ambushed it from the mountains at 8.30 am.

Bill Roggio adds:

The Pakistani military has lost well over 100 soldiers over the past week. During military operations in the tribal areas from 2004 to 2006, the government claimed it lost only 700 troops, while American military and intelligence sources tell The Fourth Rail the number is closer to 3,000. Using the Pakistani estimate of 700, the military lost one-seventh the amount of forces in five days than it lost in over two years of operations. The power of the Taliban is clearly growing in the Northwest Frontier Province.

Update (7/19): More violence in Pakistan.

Twenty-six people are said to have died in the southern town of Hub, 35km (23 miles) north of Karachi, in an attack apparently targeting Chinese workers.

Meanwhile, at least seven people were killed and more than 20 injured in a suicide car bombing at a police college in the north-western town of Hangu.

In the aftermath of the crackdown on the Red Mosque, a civil war is brewing in Pakistan. Is it ok for US troops to get mixed up in that? And if so, why there and not Iraq.

Hugh Hewitt had a terrific interview today with Gen. Petraeus, (transcript), who explained why Iraq is an important piece of real estate.

Iraq has the second or third most proven oil resources in the world. It is blessed with other mineral wealth as well that is very substantial, and has enormous potential in the global economy. It sits astride several crucial ethno-sectarian fault lines, fault lines between Arabs and Kurds, fault lines between Sunni and Shia Iraqis, and also has substantial populations of other elements, Christians, Yazidis and some others. It is important in regional terms, needless to say, against surrounded by some neighbors that are Sunni, others Turk, and of course, they have, Turkey, they have a substantial Turkoman population as well. And then or course, Shia to their east. So there’s enormous potential implications for some of the courses of action that have been considered out there, and certainly, a precipitous withdrawal would have potentially serious implications for important interests that we have in Iraq, in the region.

Pakistan, too, is important for similar reasons. It sits astride several crucial ethno-sectarian fault lines (e.g. Punjabis, Pashtuns, Baluchis, Sindhis, and Muhajirs are the main ones), it has a mix of Sunnis, Shiites, and Christians. It borders China, India and Iran, all countries of enormous importance in the region. It borders on Afghanistan.

In his interview with Ed Morrissey (transcript here), Ambassador Jawad of Afghanistan explained why Afghanistan could be an important link in the region:

Overall, if we have a more stable region in that part of the world, the location of Afghanistan is an important asset. With the completion of the ring road in Afghanistan, the country could become a roundabout of Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent, connecting resourceful countries with a lot of energy and oil and gas to the north of Afghanistan. Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and many others, to the countries that need energy such as Pakistan and India down in the south.

Pakistan could greatly influence this development of Afghanistan. And so much threatened by the radical, murderous ideology that is breeding in the northwest tribal wars.

Yes, that swamp in Pakistan needs to be drained, either by Pakistan or by us, but let's fight our wars guided by military and strategic reasons, not political ones.