Mr. Dalrymple goes to Pakistan.

The situation here could hardly be more grim.

Members of the Taliban already control over 70 percent of Afghanistan, up from just over 50 percent in November 2007. The blowback from the Afghan conflict in Pakistan is more serious still.

The most alarming manifestation of this was the ease with which a highly trained jihadi group, almost certainly supplied and provisioned in Pakistan, probably by the nominally banned Lashkar-e-Taiba -- an organization that aims to restore Muslim rule in Kashmir -- attacked neighboring India in November.

It is a classic South Asian catch-22, which allows Lashkar to continue functioning with only cosmetic restrictions, whose main function is to impress the US. Yet the fact remains that until firm action is taken against all such groups, and training camps are closed down, the slow collapse of the Pakistani state will continue, and with it the safety of Western interests in the region.

From the archive, Steve Coll:

Clearly, Lashkar knows what it must do to protect the Pakistan government from being exposed in the violent operations that Lashkar runs in Kashmir and elsewhere.

And from last September, Dexter Filkins:

What’s going on? I asked the warlord. Why aren’t they coming for you?

“I cannot lie to you,” Namdar said, smiling at last. “The army comes in, and they fire at empty buildings. It is a drama — it is just to entertain.”

Entertain whom? I asked.

“America,” he said.

Finally:

"You can't fight here! This is the war room!"