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This isn’t good news: Pakistan makes a truce with the Taliban. Not surprisingly, the Taliban is using its presence there to blackmail Pakistanis living in the US, threatening to kill their families if they don’t send the Taliban money.

I’m afraid President Obama is about to have a particularly nasty escalation of the war in Afghanistan on his hands. All indications are that the situation there is deteriorating, and while President Obama is mulling over the troop levels in Afghanistan, he is also saying that a broader solution including diplomatic efforts will be required to resolve the situation. We can only hope and pray that he doesn’t accept converting the region to a Taliban controlled sharia-law state.