The old Belmont Club had a classic thread http://fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com/2005/10/far-line-of-sand.html that included a passage from Conrad’s Heart of Darkness with the gunboat lobbing shells at a jungle. The diplomatic track devoid of military action with people who believe they are in a state of war is of course a non-starter. In fact diplomacy presupposes that you have an empowered soveriegn to negotiate with. If the tribes and maddrasas cannot be relied upon to submit to a representative with plenipotentiary powers then they may need social workers as well as a military presence but diplomats can’t work. The inconveniant fact that Waziristan is not within gunboat range means that the military alternative to boots on the ground would be random retribution for terrorism by cruise missile. That would be a return to the Clintonism that worked so well in defending the world against al Queda before.