In a surprise trip to Pakistan, United States Vice President Dick Cheney told Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf he needs to act on the Al Qaida and Taliban training camps opening up in Waziristan.  This comes on the heels of a report indicating President George Bush believes Pakistan is not living up to an agreement forged with Musharraf this past September.

“He’s made a number of assurances over the past few months, but the bottom line is that what they are doing now is not working,” one senior administration official who deals often with Southeast Asia issues said late last week. “The message we’re sending to him now is that the only thing that matters is results.”

Bush is reportedly threatening to cut off U.S. aid to Pakistan unless Musharraf reigns in the Waziristan region, but the more likely outcome will be bombs dropped into these camps by Coalition forces.

In what could only be seen as the duplicity of intellectual thinking at the New York Times, an editorial last week written by the Times lambasted Bush for ‘allowing’ these training camps to be built.

Al Qaeda’s comeback didn’t have to happen. And it must not be allowed to continue. The new Qaeda sanctuaries in Pakistan do not operate with the blessing of the Pakistani government. But Pakistan’s military dictator, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, has not tried very hard to drive them out. In recent months he has virtually conceded the tribal areas to local leaders sympathetic to Al Qaeda. President Bush needs to warn him that continued American backing depends on his doing more to rid his country of people being trained to kill Americans.

The New York Times, then, believes the United States should fight Al Qaida within Waziristan, thus declaring war on Pakistan because it is Pakistan sovereign soil, but that the United States should retreat from fighting Al Qaida in Iraq.

The Washington Post wrote a similar editorial last week, deciding not to mention the region in question is official Pakistani territory and what U.S. strikes in this region might do to the regime of Musharraf.  Is it better or worse to have these Al Qaida camps in operation or risk Musharraf losing his seat, thus losing control of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal?