Pakistan's Zardari resists U.S. timeline for fighting insurgents – W.P.

In today’s Washington Post in an article entitled Pakistan’s Zardari resists U.S. timeline for fighting insurgents we see that even before we have committed troops to the Af-Pak war escalation the crucial link, Pakistan, is not reacting as we had planned.  This surprises us?  It should not.

The problem with expecting sovereign nations to do our bidding is that they are sovereign nations.  They do as they will do in order to follow their own vision of their national interests, not our vision of their national interests.  That is an uncomfortable fact in this ‘ramp up’ of the war in Afghanistan.

The great Scot poet Robert Burns wrote a poem with a famous line that is oft quoted as "the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry" but actually states in the poem "the best laid plans of mice and men gang aft agley." which essentially means the same thing in the Scottish dialect in which he wrote.

No matter how you describe our plans for the Af-Pak region or how you say it, the people and governments living there are going to do as they please, not as we please.  And that is the problem isn’t it?  How many young American lives will we waste before we grasp this? As it is, our plans have already gone awry. Now, what do we do with our best laid plans?

CWO3 Tom Barnes, USCG (Ret.)