Will the Pakistani People Wake Up Now?

I don't claim any deep knowledge of Pakistani politics, though I do follow a friend's blog on the subject.  But here's hoping that whatever reasonable and moderate people of Pakistan still remain, plus, more importantly, any loyal members of their judiciary, government and military, wake up and take control from the extremists.

I wont even go into various ISI shenanigans, culminating in the Mumbai attacks.  Just very recent events:

First, the government signs a truce with the Taliban.  Let's set back women's rights hundreds of years.    This cynical deal lasts only a couple of weeks, as Taliban forces attack soldiers and kidnap local officials.  Any coincidence that this is eerily reminiscent of various Hamas and Hezbollah kidnappings of Israeli soldiers?  Doubtful.  Muslim extremists have learned that their apologists will support such kidnappings.

But the real clincher is a Mumbai-style terrorist attack on a visiting cricket team.  I know Pakistanis love their cricket, will this outrage finally convince them to retake control of their own country?  I don't know.  It's hard for an American to imagine the situation, but if (very hypothetically!) rabid followers of Rush Limbaugh or Rachel Maddow attacked Baseball's Opening Day I would hope that Americans would respond forcefully to denounce them and eliminate their influence on society.

If not, I'm afraid we may have to write off the Pakistanis (and, in the baseball example, we'd have to write off Americans).  There's no hope for them to save their state.

Maybe I'm too much of a "glass half full" guy, but I really see this cricket incident as a potentially good thing - revealing to all just how mindless and nihilistic the extremists are.  Let's all hope the Pakistani people wake up.