Pakistan is given a deadline?

[hot_pastrami]

From a New Republic article:

The Bush administration denies it has geared the war on terrorism to the electoral calendar. "Our attitude and actions have been the same since September 11 in terms of getting high-value targets off the street, and that doesn't change because of an election," says National Security Council spokesman Sean McCormack. But The New Republic has learned that Pakistani security officials have been told they must produce HVTs by the election. According to one source in Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), "The Pakistani government is really desperate and wants to flush out bin Laden and his associates after the latest pressures from the U.S. administration to deliver before the [upcoming] U.S. elections."

I would experience no surprise if this proved to be accurate, as Bush's public support is slipping, and this sort of thing might just restore some of his credibility with the American public.

It's certainly worthwhile to do whatever it takes to hunt down bin Laden, but once again Bush is acting in his own best interests (hence the election-time deadline)... this time they just happen to intersect with those of the country. The article is filled with stories of veiled threats and nasty ultimatums, and I for one don't think that Team Bush should be leveraging us this way. Too often the man's personal agenda is not in the nation's best interest, and I fear what he will do if re-elected, effectively shedding the self-restraint brought on by risk of losing the election.