I am sorry to have called all Pakistanis as jackals. It was only an attempt at the rhyme. If one takes a percentage of sensible people in any country, I can bet all countries will have a similar proportion, Pakistan and India included (call it the silent majority, sheep or whatever). No patriotic citizen will speak against his country, even if his nation is on the wrong side. That is the unfortunate thing. To make someone admit that there is a problem on his side, takes a lot of careful efforts in communications. In the case of the Mumbai attacks, I am of the opinion that the Pakistani establishment has made a calculated move to draw India into the conflict. They knew what would happen and their responses seemed to confirm that. They knew that the Indians are idiots and will start barking right away. This brought the Pakistani media and the public on their side. Prior to that look at the precarious state of the Zardari/Gilani government. Bombs were going off inside Pakistan. After Mumbai, for almost two months, peace prevailed inside Pakistan. November is the month when the government changed hands in the US and November is the month when the Mumbai attacks happened. Zardari is an extremely corrupt fellow and a very clever manipulator. He has turned the tables using the circumstances and now no one is going after him. The Taliban and every fanatic system inside Pakistan rallied behind him anticipating a military strike from India. It almost worked. But for that Kasab and the amateur way in which the militants left their evidences on their path exposed the truth. And the bigger mistake was taking out Westerners and Jews. Had the plan worked only against Indians, none of the Western powers would have cared and Pakistan would have made a major gain. But that was not to be. The dust has settled and the Taliban has started pounding the military. Holbrooke is in the neighborhood. More US troops are coming. May be there will be one more attempt? This has nothing to do with the people of Pakistan. All this is part of the terrible power plays that have become a norm inside Pakistan and is spreading around. I sincerely pray that the moderate parties win in India’s elections. So I expect a terrorist strike at the time of the elections, which will skew the voters’ minds into electing a party that uses the opportunity to whip up the sentiments. Remember the overwhelming majority that Rajiv Gandhi got after his mother’s assassination. Pakistani establishment might try to whip up the emotions and get a belligerent party to power in India. Then it will be easy to get India to retaliate. Strike number 2 will happen and an impatient India, embarrassed about its inability to do anything will do what the soldiers are doing in Kashmir. Go off in a rage and it will be used as a human rights abuse by the Pakistani propaganda machinery. They have done that well in the case of Kashmir. This will add more fuel to the fire and guess what it achieves? A fully united Islamic front that is ready to take on India. These acts of subterfuge will help gain a lot for Pakistan. Hence my suspicion on the Zardari/ISI establishment. One terrorist strike during the IPL will bring down the curtains on Indian cricket. All foreign players will run for their lives and will never step into India. BCCI will not make any money after that. How simple? Let us hope Obama drives a deep wedge into all this.

You have voiced several rational fears. But this is incorrect “..that there is a clever jackal hiding inside every Pakistani..”.

It is true that there are several jackals inside Pakistan, and may be even true that Pakistan itself is being run by these jackals. But it is unnecessary to assume that Pakistani people have any knowledge or compliance in this show.

More likely, a huge majority of the Pakistani people are fed up with what is offered to them on a platter by the government : total lack of security, total unaccountability of the armed forces, armed forces being complicit of supporting terrorists (as in Swat) and in the murder of civilians, monumental corruption inside the ruling classes ..

India needs to use this anger of Pakistanis towards its advantage.

The Pak establishment is not fighting the on terror – its only managing the PR impact.

The Pak army is fighting the hostile section of the taliban in areas like bajaur perhaps but is supporting the pakjabi and friendly talibs establish a base in Swat for example.

An independent pakhtunistan carved out of Pak and Afgn is not a bad scenario from India’s POV, IMHO.

They seem to be attempting something similar in Afghanistan. Buy peace by sharing power with Taliban in Kabul outskirts. But will Taliban continue keeping distance from Kabul once US is out, in say two or three years?

It appears something similar is being attempted in Pak. Rein in fringe elements by sharing power, till you can declare victory and exit.

But fringe elements have already tasted power, and Iran is a tested template on how to run a Islamic theocracy with facade of democracy. I see Afghan, Iraq and Pak following the same footsteps in a decade. Saudi and others too may not be able to hold out for long after that.

With G.W.Bush, US would have at-least maintained the massive embassy in Baghdad and sufficient troops on ground to prevent a religious take over by likes of Sadr. The new administration under the guise of “new” foreign policy may cut down many of these safety nets to save money in the recession, and let Middle-east countries chart their own course.

Paint me paranoid, but we may well be looking at Islamic theocracy ruling by proxy from Pakistan to Africa in a decade or two.