A question

As Frank Rich argues, the real enemy remains al Qaeda. And, as the NYT reported last week, al Qaeda is resurgent in Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province, an essentially ungoverned area that borders Afghanistan. They have even reestablished camps of the sort that trained the 9/11 hijackers.

Assume with me, if you will, that the Pakistani government lacks the will or the ability to root out al Qaeda and its homegrown terrorists. (Dick Cheney is apparently lecturing the Pakistanis that they have to do that or those fearsome Democrats in Congress will cut aid to the country, but the history of the past few years gives little basis for confidence that the Musharraf government can or will move effectively.)

OK, here's the question: If you were President, would you order American special forces into Waziristan (that's where the terrorist training camps apparently are) and have them fight a clandestine campaign to destroy al Qaeda?

Your answers to this question will be welcomed.


(By the way, Waziristan is where Kipling set the story of The Man Who Would Be King.)