More on Pakistan

As last week's Newsweek will tell you, the world's most dangers nation is not Iran, but Pakistan. It is a picture of instability. In recent weeks, it's current head of state (Musharraf and the exiled leader Bhuttu) have each survived assassination attempts, by way of explosion.

Violence continued today when an air force bus was destroyed, again by detonation. The explosion, near the central city of Sarghoda, killed eight and wounded 27 others. It is not a good time to be a symbol of state authority in Pakistan.

The attack was the first on air force personnel, but not the first on the armed forces. The standing army has been attacked numerous times. The attack on the air force is a sign of growing challenge to Musharraf, the New York Times reports:

“His authority has been undermined by growing unrest in tribal regions near the border with Afghanistan, where there has been a rising number of deadly attacks on military targets by militants sympathetic to the Taliban and Al Qaeda.”

“This is an extremely serious situation now,” said Talat Masood to the Times, a retired army general and military analyst. “The militants are trying to overpower, overwhelm the government. It is the military versus the militants, and the people are mere spectators.”

I'll be taking this from two perspectives: historic use of terror and contemporary discord.

This sort of insurgency is an interesting one. The propaganda by the deed here has historical parallels, including, quite obviously, terror in the Middle East. This brand of terrorism has its roots in turn of the century Europe, specifically France and the two rim countries – Spain and Russia.