Pakistan has opted for martial law.  If the cabinet approves it would free the government to wage all-out war to eliminate--once and for all--the extreme Islamist/Al Queda problem in the its northwest provinces.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21609019/

It's not something I'd like to see but Pakistan has let things go too far and there is no longer any other viable solution.  It made a mistake encouraging the Taliban in the first place and once the Taliban from Afghanistan and Al Queda and other foreign fighters took refuge there it created a "sure lose"situation if left alone.  

Mass civilian casualties, economic destruction and disorder on an Iraq-style are assured if Pakistan continues to follow the present tepid approach.   You can't appease or tolerate extremist militants because--like Nazi brownshirts--they can't tolerate anyone but themselves in turn.  To continue that policy guarantees that the extremists will never stop trying to control and intimidate with suicide bombers, assissination attempts and various forms of mass murder. 

The longer the government waits to do what must be done, the more Al Queda-style training camps will be set up to teach larger numbers the techniques of mass murder via intiimidating an entire populace.   Pakistan's cautious liberals don't understand that.   It's as if they believed, "Maybe if we ignore them they'll go away."   It's totally naive.  Now the only solution is violence--one way or another. 

Let the militants alone, and they'll never let Pakistan or the Pakistanis alone because it's not in their nature.  Pakistan will suffer the most violence as the militants  grow stronger, increase their attacks and seize power, resulting in endless further violence via brutal Taliban-style rule and even more internal violence as fanatics will do anything to impose their totalitarian lifestyle.  

Other potential consequences: the flight of Pakistan's middle class (if someone will take them), a near universal cutoff in diplomatic relations (which is why Paks won't be able to escape the Taliban by fleeting to Britain), and extremely heavy sanctions from virutally every country in the world (since all would be endangered by such a radical state).

Destory the militants now in an all-out campaign and Pakistan will suffer violence but at least there will be a light at the end of the tunnel in contrast to the above scen ario.  The militants can be wiped out but it could an Algeria-style campaign.   However, if the government can resort to the kind of harshness Suharto used in Indonesia the total number of innocents killed and the length of time required could be much shorter than in Algeria.   Pakistan must resort to the same sort of ruthlessnes, not only going after the Taliban but the Islamist Party leaders who covertly support them. 

You can't appease extreme Islamists.  Soft treatment has only strengthened them and worked in their favor and why should that change.   It's like a disease--like gangrene or cancer that will only continue to spread unless totally cut out.   No other solution is possible now because things will only get worse if the problem is evaded. 

Any half-hearted measures now won't work.  The government must go all out and be totally ruthless or the militants will win.  That means no criticism and no demonstrations allowed, mass curfews, etc., until the problem is removed.  At this point anything less could lead to civil war which is even worse.

Pakistan has created an otherwise insolvable problem which will contintue to divide and worsen the situation whose roots stem from a fatal decision to encourage Islamic radicalism as a tool of foreign policy in Afghanistan and Kashmir.   Like the problem of slavery in America, which created divisions that got worse with each decade that past, Islamic militancy in Pakistan must be destroyed. 

The methods used must be as nasty and brutal as those used by the extreme Islamists but when it's over Pakistan will be better off and have a potentially bright future which it doesn't have now.  Also it will have learned its lesson, while other countries, from watching it all, will perhaps finally learned the foolishness as using Islamist extremists as a proxy too.  The Sunnis in Iraq learned that lesson the hard way.    The Shia in Iraq are gradually turning against Shia militias for similar reasons.

THERE IS ONLY ONE WAY LEFT TO REDUCE (NOT AVOID)  VIOLENCE NOW

Having harbored Al Queda, foreign volunteers and domestic militants, the tribes of northwest Pakistan must themselves clean up the region as Sunnis have done to Al Queda in Iraq.  Otherwise they'll suffer horrors not just equivalent to what happened there but much worse.   Either they kill or expel the militants or the government will.  Don't hold your breath.

SHOULD THE US HELP PAKISTAN'S MILITARY FORCES?

The United States should lend no direct military assistance to the government of Pakistan in the form of troops on the ground or massive assistance by air.  If it does, the struggle here will be exploited by Islamists worldwide, including Muslm Brotherhood sites like this.  Any large-scale, highly visible assistance would also offend Pakistani nationalism and help Islamists portray him as a puppet. 

That doesn't mean that we can't provide intelligence help, counteriinsurgency training, useful drones and perhaps small handfuls of special force assistance. The Pakistani army at this point will need assistance of that sort or combat could last much longer.  That's hardly good for Pakistan.  Wipe out the bad guys and get rid of them once and for all, as Suharto did.

American interests in destroying militant extremists after 9/11 definitely coincide but the central point to note is that Pakistan's own self-interest and its very survival is at stake if it fails to act.   This is something that Pakistan would have to do sooner or later have to do even if there were no outside pressure and the sooner the better.  No one enjoys chemotherapy or a cancer operation but the consequences of avoiding either are much worse.

Always remember: It wasn't the Americans who encouraged Zia and others to play footsies with these militants long before 9/11 and even before the Russians invaded Pakistan.   And during the conlict with the Russians that developed a few years afterward, Pakistan--with a monopoly of control over supply lines and logistics, insisted that only the Taliban could be supplied.