I say Sunni and you say Shia...let's call the whole thing off

In other words, who will Bush and Cheney and the PNAC neocons blame for this mess?

Barney! You didn't believe in me enough!

The leader of the Taliban's military operations has criticised Pakistan and Arab nations for helping the US and its allies.

Speaking in interview with Al Jazeera aired on Friday, Mullah Dadullah said that the Taliban's acitivities had suffered more from Pakistan's operations than from American and coalition activities.

"The Pakistani government has a strange policy that no-one can understand," Dadullah said.

"We have not suffered as much from America, Britain or any Islamic or Arab country as from the oppression and aggression we suffered from Pakistan."

"The targets which were firstly bombed were by the help of Pakistani intelligence and the first batches of invading forces entered from Pakistan."

He also said that Iran's Shia had not given any assistance to the Taliban, a Sunni movement: "Iran has never adopted any Jihadi agenda while the leaders of Arab countries are just followers of America and Britain."

The Taliban are gearing up for their spring of suicide bombers in Afghanistan.

As Pervez Musharraf tries to do what Cheney ordered him to do:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, March 3 -- The arrest of a senior Taliban leader in a Pakistani city long reputed to be a haven for the group kindled guarded hope among Western and Afghan security officials Friday that the government here plans to move more aggressively against insurgents taking refuge on its territory.

The arrest, confirmed by two senior Pakistani intelligence officials, marks the first time since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that authorities here have acknowledged apprehending or killing a senior Taliban commander on Pakistani soil. It comes as Pakistan faces pressure from the Bush administration to step up its involvement in a counterinsurgency campaign that has foundered in the past year, with Taliban attacks in Afghanistan becoming more deadly and audacious.

[snip]

Pakistani officials would not comment for the record Friday. While the arrest is likely to bolster Pakistan's counterterrorism bona fides, it is also potentially embarrassing: Akhund was caught in the southern Pakistani city of Quetta, where terrorism analysts believe much of the Taliban leadership resides, though Pakistan denies it.

Afghan officials have long asserted that Pakistan's government is either looking the other way as insurgents recruit and train on its soil or actively aiding the Taliban's cause. In recent months, U.S. officials have become sharply critical as well, saying Pakistan must crack down on border sanctuaries.

Cheney, traveling this week with the deputy director of the CIA, repeated that message here Monday to Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf. The next day, Cheney was in the largest U.S. air base in Afghanistan when a suicide bomber struck just outside the base's gate, killing 23 people.

But wait, here is another take on Cheney's visit:

Cheney's finest hour has come -- for sorting out Iran, the 'last frontier' in the energy war, before he retires.

It is this sense of urgency that brought him to Pakistan after visiting two of America's staunchest remaining allies -- Australia and Japan.

Cheney's visit to Pakistan signifies an extraordinary moment in the diplomatic history of the Indian subcontinent. The Indian strategic community must get it straight. The consequences are going to be immense.

Washington expects General Musharraf to stand up and be counted if a confrontation ensues with Iran.

Musharraf is already allowing US intelligence to stage covert operations against Iran from Pakistan's Baluchistan province. He is doing all he can in rallying the Sunni Muslim world.

Last weekend's conclave of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference foreign ministers in Islamabad was exclusively of Sunni Muslim countries. Iran was excluded.

Musharraf may have a greater role to play if the security of Saudi Arabia gets threatened in any armed conflagration in the Persian Gulf region, or if Iran gets seriously destabilised.

Most important, Washington needs Islamabad to ensure that the Afghan war remains on track in its present state of animation, while it moves against Iran.

Tehran has considerable levers of influence inside Afghanistan. Senlis Council, the British think tank, last week assessed that Iran might have begun assisting the Afghan resistance.

The point is the Taliban is a generic name.

Indeed, who is a Talib? Anyone could be -- when civilisations have begun clashing. He needn't be necessarily Wahhabi or anti-Shia.

From the US geo-strategic point of view, the Afghan war has managed to get an unwilling NATO to come and slouch in a region that is the soft underbelly of Russia and China (and India).

Washington would like NATO to remain there ad infinitum. If tomorrow NATO becomes part of the US missile defence system, its occupation of the Afghan high plateau is a huge advantage -- overlooking four of the world's eight nuclear powers.

The congruence of interests between the Bush administration and the Musharraf regime has no parallel in the chronicle of US-Pakistan relations.

To belittle the General, to chastise him like an errant school boy, to ridicule him as presiding over a banana republic, to send him sulking to a corner -- that was the last thing Cheney had in mind.

Which makes it hard because the Pakistanis are nearly all Muslim and mostly Sunni:

Although Pakistan has small populations of Hindus, Christians, and Buddhists, the vast majority of Pakistanis—some 96 percent—are Muslims. From its inception in 1947, the country defined itself as an Islamic republic. The religion of Islam, however, is complex with its many divisions and controversies.

In Pakistan, the Sunnite branch of Islam predominates over the Shi'ite, which constitutes 15 to 25 percent of the population. The Shi'ite branch has numerous subsects, one of the most successful of which is the Isma'ilis. The Isma'ilis are further divided into the Musta'lis and the Nizaris, who pay allegiance to the Aga Khan.

Sunnis are getting irritated at the Shia:

Regionally, most Arab governments, which are overwhelmingly Sunni, have signalled impatience and worry over mostly Shiite Iran's backing of co-religionists in Iraq and Lebanon, saying such support can only destabilize the region.

Iran is a strong backer of Lebanon's Hezbollah, which is striving to bring down the U.S.-and Saudi-backed Lebanese government. Iran also has close ties to Shiite political parties in Iraq, and Washington accuses it of backing Shiite militias there.

Arab officials have pointed out that while Shiites are a majority in Iran and Iraq, they make up only 15 per cent of the world's Muslim population, and sectarian tensions could ultimately work against the groups that Iran supports.

Iran reaches out to Saudi Arabia:

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - Saudi Arabia's king personally welcomed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad upon his arrival Saturday, a rapprochement many hope will help calm sectarian tensions threatening the Middle East.

King Abdullah received Ahmadinejad at the airport, and the two were expected to begin talks immediately, the official Saudi Press Agency news agency reported.

Ahmadinejad's trip comes amid rapid developments that threaten to further isolate his country and place it under punitive sanctions because of its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment.

On Saturday, top diplomats from the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany will try to reach agreement on new sanctions against Iran. A U.S. official predicted the session would lead to a "substantive resolution."

As Saudi Arabians fund the Sunni insurgents in Iraq:

CAIRO (AP) — Private Saudi citizens are giving millions of dollars to Sunni insurgents in Iraq and much of the money is used to buy weapons, including shoulder fired anti-aircraft missiles, according to key Iraqi officials and others familiar with the flow of cash.

Saudi government officials deny that any money from their country is being sent to Iraqis fighting the government and the U.S.-led coalition.

But the U.S. Iraq Study Group report said Saudis are a source of funding for Sunni Arab insurgents. Several truck drivers interviewed by The Associated Press described carrying boxes of cash from Saudi Arabia into Iraq, money they said was headed for insurgents.

And Iraq continues the meltdown as al-Maliki pretends to be in control:

BAGHDAD (AP) - Gunmen stormed the home of a Sunni family threatened with death for meeting with local Shiites, separating out the women and children and executing six men on Saturday, Iraqi police and military officials said.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, under mounting U.S. pressure to take greater responsibility for security, said he will reshuffle his cabinet in coming days.

"The reshuffle will be either this week or next week," al-Maliki told The Associated Press in an interview in Baghdad's heavily protected Green Zone.

He also threatened to order the arrest of parliamentary members and other political leaders suspected of supporting extremists.

And as the British pack their bags, Cheney reassures the country this is all good:

"Well, I look at it and see it is actually an affirmation that there are parts of Iraq where things are going pretty well," Cheney told ABC News' Jonathan Karl.

"In fact, I talked to a friend just the other day who had driven to Baghdad down to Basra, seven hours, found the situation dramatically improved from a year or so ago, sort of validated the British view they had made progress in southern Iraq and that they can therefore reduce their force levels," Cheney said.

Update: corrected quote from Al Jazeera