Pakistan's 9/11: Caution! Smog of War ahead!

"The Marriott is an icon," said Abdullah Riar, formerly an aide to the assassinated former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, Zardari's wife. "It's like the twin towers of Pakistan. It's a symbolic place in the capital of the country, and now it has melted down."

Required reading: Bill Roggio's initial 12:34 AM report on the Marriott Hotel bombing and IHT/NYT one. Both reports provide valuable details and the IHT report carries facts that Bill's earlier report doesn't contain. But note the IHT slant, which not-so-subtly directs blame at U.S. actions:

[...]The targeting of the American hotel chain came at a time of growing anger in the Muslim nation over a wave of cross-border strikes on militant bases in Pakistan by U.S. forces in Afghanistan. [...]
A recent series of suspected U.S. missile strikes and a rare American ground assault in Pakistan's northwest have signaled Washington's impatience with Pakistan's efforts to clear out militants. But the cross-border operations have drawn protests from the Pakistani government, which warned they would fan militancy.[...]

The title of Bill's report points to the real story: Bombing at Islamabad Marriott latest in string of complex terror attacks. And this September 19 report from Bill's Long War Journal, US strikes in Pakistan aimed at stopping the next Sept. 11 attack, provides insights on the consequences of the Pakistan military's reluctance to confront terrorists inside Pakistan -- which now include the attack that many Pakistanis are calling their 9/11.