Few things can be worse than the entire country of Afghanistan controlled by the Taliban. With this base Al-Qaida was able to train, mastermind and launch the horrific attacks against our soil and kill thousands of Americans whose only crime was showing up for work on time. Who can think of anything worse than that? The latest news forebodes something far worse, nuclear armed Pakistan potentially under the control of the Taliban. Imagine what Al-Qaida could have done with a nuke or two.

Recently, Pakistan has seeded control of a major area of northwestern Pakistan to the Taliban and allowed the imposition of Sharia law. Not satisfied with this (Do deals with the Devil ever turn out as planned?) the Taliban has extended its influence into a neighboring district bringing it to within 60 miles of the capital.

Though I have my problems with George W. Bush, and have written about them here, at least he was willing to fight even when the world said talk and understood how to deal with those who kill innocents. Perhaps having a cowboy who understood oak-tree justice as Commander-in-Chief was a good thing. Is it possible that our new presidents desire to play at peace has led to this? We no longer have a president who will scorn dictators or tell the world: “You’re either with us or against us!” With a president no longer willing to swing the big-stick all we have left in foreign policy is the soft-talk. I fear that when it comes to foreign policy and dealing with the enemy, “the spine has left the White House.”