Bush & Co. did not “take their eye off” Afghanistan or “get distracted” by Iraq. I can’t believe how short and selective people’s memories are. The Taliban were routed and some escaped into Pakistan, which we could not enter for obvious reasons – not least because there are 30 million Taliban-like barbarians who live there. Also the destabilization of Pakistan was a major concern, as it remains – the credibility of which fear was proven by the eventual *actual* destabilization of Musharraf’s regime (not without his help). Remember that the original destablizing thing was not the arrest of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court but the Taliban bombing campaigns and Red Mosque event. To these Musharraf reacted initially – or even before – by formally signing into existence the Islamic Emirate of Waziristan in 2006. What could we do, in Pakistan? Not much. We’re still not doing much. Yet the Taliban and Haqqani network and god knows who else operates out of *Pakistan.* Bush didn’t get distracted, neither he nor Obama can do anything about Pakistan without a strategic commitment of historic proportions – which, in order to succeed ultimately, would require Stalin-level genocide in the tribal belt. So snap out of it.