The Two-Front War  Originally published in The Weekly Standard
November 2, 2009  Pakistan is finally doing its part. Now we
need to do ours.  Pakistani and Afghan border guards share tea
(Photo by Lt. Col. Butch Woolfolk, available at  A network of
militant Islamist groups stretches from India to the Iranian
border, from the Hindu Kush to the Indian Ocean. These groups
include Pashtuns and Punjabis, Arabs and Uzbeks and more. They
have no common leader, vision, hierarchy, or goal. But they do
agree on a few key points: Any government not based on their
interpretation of Islam is illegitimate and apostate; anyone who
participates in or obeys such a government is not a Muslim and
is therefore liable to be killed; Muslims must be "liberated"
from oppressive regimes such as Pakistan, India, and
Afghanistan; and the United States and its allies are the
principal sources of support for these unjust and apostate
regimes and must be defeated or destroyed. Al Qaeda is the most
infamous of these groups because it alone