Anybody who wants to understand the dangers we face in the coming years (possibly months) with regard to militant Islamist threats should read this column by Sumit Ganguly.

Danger Ahead for the Most Dangerous Place in the World - washingtonpost.com

The grim truth is that Pakistan is becoming something alarmingly close to a failed state. And that could have disastrous consequences for the United States, NATO and Afghanistan’s struggle to hold back its own Taliban insurgency … We need a stern, serious international effort — led by the United States — to put Pakistan back together again, reform its institutions and reorder its priorities. If not, we will face a terrifying prospect: Pakistan’s collapse (slow or otherwise) into a full-blown failed state, armed with nuclear weapons, riven by ethnic tensions, suffused with resentment and zealotry, and with roving bands of Taliban sympathizers and bin Ladenists in its midst.