Since the earliest days after 9/11, the White House has called Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf a key ally in the war on terror, even though he acts against the Taliban and other jihadists within his country only when forced to by the U.S. And predictably, shortly before Dick Cheney landed for talks on Feb. 26, Pakistan announced the capture of Mullah Obaidullah, a senior Taliban leader and deputy of chief Mullah Omar.

But the White House signaled its growing impatience with his failure to crack down on Islamic extremists. The vice president made it clear: American military assistance to Islamabad is at risk unless Bush certifies that the Pakistani government is making all possible efforts to curtail Taliban activity on its soil.

There is little chance Musharraf will make substantive changes. Three strands of jihad converge and feed off one another in Pakistan's radicalized Sunni mosques, madrasas and other religious institutions. This rather arbitrary division of jihadists into the good (regional), the bad (domestic), and the ugly (global) has led the Musharraf government to adopt incoherent, conflicting policies. It has also meant that the crackdown on militant groups is selective, reactive, and sporadic. Whereas the "ugly" -- al-Qaeda and the Taliban -- are pitched against the 70,000 or so troops stationed in the tribal areas, their ancillary domestic outfits have only faced cosmetic bans and partial, on-off police action. The leaders of the "good" jihad meanwhile lead an active and highly visible public life, appearing in the electronic media, running radical madrasas, and regularly issuing calls for jihad from the pulpit. Their organizations, too, remain as active as ever, and almost all the jihadi organizations banned by the government are plying the trade by other names.

Protesters fight police following the firing of Pakistan's Supreme Court chief justice   PHOTO: Pakistan Times

At the same time, Musharraf is facing his biggest domestic political crisis because of his abrupt March 9 suspension of Supreme Court chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry. Attorneys protested and fought police in the streets for days afterwards. Why was he fired? The official charges listed minor corruption offenses, such as family use of a government car, but the real reason, critics say, is that he could not be trusted to rule in Musharraf's favor on important cases about to be heard by the court, including the legality of Musharraf running for another term as president

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Taliban Rule Unchallenged in Pakistan Mountains

Foreign observers of Israel tend to focus so intently on the dangers the country faces from its Arab neighbors that they have largely missed an astonishing story that has been accelerating over the past few months: that of the Jewish state's possible move toward internal collapse. If you consider this an exaggeration, just take note of what the past couple of weeks have brought about. A few days ago the chief of the Israeli police resigned after an investigation that found several of Israel's highest police officers guilty of corruption and negligence. This came within a week of the forced resignation of Israel's Chief of Staff from the military because of the fiascos of the second Lebanon war. It was also some ten days after Israel's minister of justice was convicted of sexual assault while on duty, and a couple of weeks after Israel's president -- who holds a largely symbolic position -- resigned temporarily following charges of rape and sexual misconduct. It was also the same day that the head of Israel's tax authority resigned because of possible corruption charges. In the meantime, several other investigations are still pending, not least two or three directed at the Prime Minister himself, Ehud Olmert, concerning corruption and favoritism.

There certainly has never been such a deep crisis of leadership in the country that touts itself as the only democracy in the Middle East. The leader of the ruling parliamentary coalition, Avigdor Yitzhaki, said so publicly a few days ago. And the Minister of Education has suggested that all schools devote special classes to the "government crisis," so that children can speak out about what might well seem to them like a total collapse of all systems that control their lives. Suddenly the Palestinians and the Hezbollah, and even Iranian nukes, have taken a back seat: Israel does indeed seem in danger of imploding from within, at least as a viable democracy

BUSH TANKS IN LATIN TOUR

"Too little, too late" appears to be the consensus of Bush's six-day, five-country tour of Latin America, followed by questions about what the hastily-arranged visit was intended to accomplish. There were no announcements of new policies, and few pledges of additional assistance. Many believed that the trip was a desperate move to undermine the growing popularity and power of Venezuela's Chavez, who provides far more aid to his neighbors than the U.S.

But even while Bush was trying to win Latin American friends, harsh new policies on illegal immigrants were being enforced at home, including Operation "Return to Sender," one of the largest such operations in U.S. history. The program, supposedly designed to target "fugitive aliens," has resulted in the indiscriminate round up of over 13,000 undocumented migrants in cities throughout the United States. And a report issued during Bush's trip found "guest workers" in the United States are routinely forced to handover the deeds to their homes to recruiters, cheated out of wages, held captive by employers who seize their passports and visas

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Bush Tour Leaves Latin Press Puzzled

Bush Gets Chilly Reception Even in Mexico

Bush Latin Tour Too Little, Too Late

Immigration Reform Going Nowhere on Capitol Hill

Many "Guest Workers" Held Captive by Employers

U.S. Splitting Immigrant Families, Deporting Small Children

U.S. Immigration Crackdown Returning Migrants to Country Without Jobs

Bush Admin Seeking Big Hike in Citizenship Application Fees