"Taliban spokesman Azam Tariq told the Associated Press (that) the assault on army headquarters was only the first in a planned wave of attacks INTENDED TO AVENGE the killing of Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud in a CIA missile strike in August". "intended to avenge" = seek revenge AND THE TALIBAN ARE EXPERTS AT THIS.

A statement issued by President Asif Ali Zardari through Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said: "Such attacks cannot deter us from the offensive against the militants". Well, the miltants are also "(on) the offensive" and they seem to be one step ahead of the government right now. "We will continue our fight to the death of the last terrorist". The militants are prepared to do the same thing.

"Those attacks were followed by the raid on army headquarters in the city of Rawalpindi on Saturday that killed nine militants and 14 others", most of whom were probably civilians. Civilian casualties must be kept to a minimum. "Military spokesman Major Gen. Ather Abbas said (that) the militants were trying to seize senior army officials and trade them for their jailed comrades". Sound familiar? This is the policy of "an eye for an eye, an ear for an ear, a captive for a captive, etc.".

More specifically, Abbas said: "Their main focus was the release of their leaders". This has always been a tactic of terrorist groups: release our people that you've captured OR ELSE, WE'RE GOING TO KILL CIVILIANS.

"The suspected ringleader in the raid, a Punjabi named Mohammad Aqueel - also known as Dr. Usman (terrorists almost always use aliases to avoid being identified) - WAS ALSO BELIEVED TO HAVE ORCHESTRATED AN ATTACK ON SRI LANKA'S VISITING CRICKET TEAM IN LAHORE THIS YEAR". So Aqueel (or Usman) is not a new terrorist. He has been in the thick of the action before.

Finally, according to Zulfikkar Hamid, a senior police investigator who led the investigation into the vicious attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team, "HIS MILITARY KNOWLEDGE had brought him close to the Taliban and al-Qaeda leadership". Like bin Laden, this man has sophisticated military knowledge and unfortunately, like bin Laden, this is a man who uses his military knowledge TO BLOW PEOPLE UP.

So, here's another issue for President Obama, hot on the heels of his Nobel Peace Prize, along with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates. If al-Qaeda is to be eliminated, we must pay attention to PAKISTAN as well as Afghanistan because militants in Pakistan know that we are zeroing in on Afghanistan, which is why they are stepping on the gas in Pakistan and this is creating devastating consequences for civilians (looking at the caption, the wounded are in SEVERE pain). Also, the militants chose to strike IN A MARKET where people are participating in daily activities in an effort to make the consequences even more devastating and deadly and it's clear that the Pakistani government's response to all of this violence is pretty inept.