Extra-special photo juxtaposition

Only when history repeats and our man in Islamabad is deposed by the local fundamentalists, this time said fundamentalists will already have nukes.

As Larry Johnson points out (and to my chagrin) Hillary saw this coming, and Obama didn't. The Bush Administration? Think Jimmy Carter, but with less authentic religion and infinitely fewer excuses.

I don't know how this will play out, but the possibilities are mind-boggling. A Taliban-friendly Pakistan seems a distinct possibility, perhaps even a likelihood. That would checkmate Bush policy not just in Pakistan but in Afghanistan, too.

Nuclear powers India and China share borders with Pakistan. They are unlikely to be passive in the face of typical Bush cowboy diplomacy.

One of the corollaries to Murphy's Law is that nothing is ever so bad that it can't get even worse. We are about to prove it again. As I noted a couple of months ago, Juan Cole saw an even more chilling comparison to where things were headed: 1914. Only now we know who plays the part of Archduke Ferdinand.