All good questions Bowser.........

The problem here is that Pakistan successfully used "terrorism" for years without a word of rebuke from the "Free World"........If we define "terrorism as the arming and training groups of men then sending them over the border to operate on someone elses soil, ......... Pakistan has done that in Spades.

On it's western borders it armed and trained ( With US and Saudi "advisors" money and equipment)... the Mujahadeen who fought the soviets....... then, when it was clear that the Mujahadeen were simply a gang of ruthless warlords pillageing the populations they had supposedly freed ... ( These are the same people who are now known as the Northern Alliance of course, and are back in charge of the country, apparently, by and large, behaveing themselves this time...... at least while we have troops there)

They replaced this group with another they had armed and trained...( This time useing Saudi resources alone)... the Taliban.

The Taliban were effectively an arm, or proxy, of the Pakistan military intelligence ( Known as the ISI)........Not one, under thier full control... nevertheless The links between the Taliban and The Pakistani military were\are as close as you can possibely imagine.

I'm reading reports today that say the links ( Despite the dismissal by the Current Pakistani Leader of those most senior generals connected to the Taliban) are still very, very strong.

The Pakistani leader took a huge gamble sideing with the US on this matter, his own army is riddled with senior commanders who made thier names promoting the Taliban cause over the years.

The point of all this was to secure on thier western border, a friendly nation... "Strategic Depth"... because on thier Eastern border.........

Was India.

and Kashmir.

In the last fifty years or so India and Pakistan has fought (three? Five? I forget the exact number) wars and had numerous serious armed clashes over Kashmir.

At the time of partion Kashmir ( I forget the details but know there was some very shady back ground to how and why the decision was made) was given to India, despite the fact it was a muslim state, and despite the fact that the population, if they had been asked, either then, or now, would have voted to join Pakistan.

So on it's Eastern border, for years, Pakistan has armed and trained volunteers\freedom fighters\ terrorists (insert whichever term you think applies) and sent them into Kashmir...to Indias rage.

Now bear in mind that much of Pakistans population had been driven from India at the time of Partition, hundreds of thousands were killed, in some ways they see themselves as as another Palestinian people, as refugee's, and they see Kashmir as thier "Israel"... land handed by foriegn powers to a nation that routinely kills thousands of muslims in state sponsored "Riots".

And the leadership in Pakistan has been instructed.. and apparently tried....... to stop the arming and training of these groups.... thereby antagoniseing the remainder of his army\security services who made thier names doing just that.

( This isn't just about careers and pride though. The Pakistani Army and population genuinely believe they are being forced to abandon thier allies and friends, on one side.. too the tender mercies of US B52's and any passing Royal Marine platoon, and on the other too the Indian Army and a Xenophobic regime.

But the next time these two go to war, they'll be taking nuclear weapons.

Why do the Indian (Hindus) hate the (Muslim) Pakistanis?.........Partly because the muslims swept into conquered and ruled Most of India before the British arrived on the scene......... Why do the Muslim( Pakistanis) hate the Indian (Hindus)? Because within living memory the Hindus killled hundreds of thousands of them ( It wasn't all one way traffic btw)... and like I said.... moslem communities in India today live under the daily fear of pogroms.

Like I said.........a disgusting shambles.

We can discuss, should you wish it Bowser, The British Role in all this. Best keep that for another thread though. I would like to say this however... we, The British, ran an empire, did some things we can feel pride in ( Fought a global war to abolish slavery for example) and much to feel shame at.

We or at least I, am hopeing very much that the US, now busy building it's Empire
( And while you may not have some of the traditional apparatus of an empire... like colonies........ I agree with Gore Vidal... you are a 21st century empire, with substantial military forces in over a hundred countries around the world to prove it).......I hope that you will learn from the mistakes we made with our own.