This is CBSI in the world. I'm John Batcher with the St.

Haconic, former ambassador from Pakistan to the United States. Now a senior fellow at

the Hudson Institute, writing most recently in foreign policy about the triple crisis

in Pakistan. The crisis of terrorism, yes, the crisis of the flooding and the financial

crisis with debts due and the political crisis. I want to address immediately the terror

crisis because of the mass murder at the end of January, but also because the Taliban

are now in charge in control of Kabul and the Afghanistan border, except we're looking

at the Taliban having been created in part by Islamabad. Now leading to more disorder

on the border, not less. And the question of the relationship between the Afghanistan

Taliban and the Pakistan Taliban is cloudy, hard to see. Mr. Ambassador, the question here

is, is the Taliban in Kabul now a threat to Islamabad and Rao Al-Pindi? Do they see

this as something they hadn't counted on? John, as soon after the Taliban around the

time the Taliban took over in Kabul again, I had written a piece for Foreign Affairs,

titled Pakistan's Pirate Victory. And I had argued in that that Pakistan thinks that it

can control the Afghan Taliban, but these are people with a belief system. They believe

that they are doing God's work. People who believe like that do not listen to pragmatic

instructions and advice of a government. That is why government should not encourage extremists

even if it is for a tactical reason. The Pakistani Taliban and Afghan Taliban have

the same belief system. So the Pakistani Taliban now are doing what the Afghan Taliban

were previously doing, which was the Afghan Taliban sat in Pakistan and attacked inside

of Afghanistan when Afghanistan had American forces and it was a republic, which the Taliban

did not like. Now the Pakistani Taliban are operating out of Afghanistan against Pakistan.

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