The Shifting Sands in the Middle East

DEBKAfile says its military sources are reporting that "some 20,000 troops of Pakistan's 14th Division are said to have been diverted from the Waziristan border region with Afghanistan to the Line of Control in Kashmir and the international border with India."

This poses a problem for the incoming Obama administration because, as DEBKAfile reports, it represents "a loss of one-fifth of the total Pakistani force fighting the Taliban and al Qaeda."

Someone is going to have to pick up the slack if the Taliban are to be kept from re-taking control of Afghanistan and making it the sanctuary for al Qaeda that it was before the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Once again, I urge Obama to re-deploy troops from Iraq to Afghanistan so the important work that has been done there in the last seven years will not be undone because of increasing tensions between Pakistan and India.

And I urge Hillary Clinton, as the incoming secretary of state, to get involved immediately to prevent hostilities between Pakistan and India. Such hostilities would almost certainly result in the use of nuclear weapons by one or even both.

And such an exchange is the last thing the world needs.