Chain of command

Syed Saleem Shahzad at the Asia Times writes that Pakistan is moving more towards setting up forces to counter a possible conflict with India rather than pursuing the Taliban and helping the US and NATO with the war in Afghanistan.

Also, he reports that Gen. Petraeus has just paid a visit to Pakistan, and met with Gen. Kiani (God, I wish editors could agree on the spelling of foreign names), and told him to toe the line. But later, Petraeus also announced that he had set up a new supply route for Afghanistan that goes through Russia and 'Central Asian states'.

Does this mean the US is going to start being buddy-buddy with Russia? Supplying a war through a country that you're also surrounding with military bases and missiles seems a tad ingenuous if you want to keep playing hardball with the Russians.

Under Bush, contradictions like these were part of the pie, the 'empire' made its own rules. Is Petraeus acting under orders from Obama with the new set up with Russia? Has this already been discussed with Gates? Whatever one may think about the strategy, hopefully everyone is on board. There was a lot of blurring of the line of command during the Bush administration, Obama had better be very careful that it is followed rigorously.