Recommended: High Noon in Pakistan

It seems almost impossible that Osama Bin Laden could have lived for many years in an upscale neighborhood in a major Pakistani city, surrounded not only by retired military officers but within walking distance of Pakistan's premier army training center - their "West Point" equivalent - without anyone in the Pakistani government or military or ISI intelligence agency being aware of it.  The interesting question is whether this absurd situation is due to Pakistani complicity or simple incompetence.

Walter Russel Mead has an interesting assessment of this question, and of the ramifications of this whole issue, in his American Interest piece High Noon in Pakistan.  Pakistan is, of course, only a small chess piece in the whole "great game" between China and India and the US, but it is an important piece because of it's nuclear capabilities, and because it plays a key role in keeping Afghanistan and Iraq unstable and volatile, and keeping India occupied.

Satisfying as it was to finally get the 9/11 mastermind, far more important is how the administration handles, or mishandles, the subsequent relationship with Pakistan.