His mercy fills the Khyber hills — his grace is manifold; and now Robert Kagan wants to launch an invasion of Pakistan. And if the prerequisite personnel and material resources are running low, never fear: our supply of euphemisms is abundant bordering on limitless.

Have the international community declare that parts of Pakistan have become ungovernable and a menace to international security. Establish an international force to work with the Pakistanis to root out terrorist camps in Kashmir as well as in the tribal areas…[W]hether or not Islamabad is happy, don’t the international community and the United States, at the end of the day, have some obligation to demonstrate to the Indian people that we take attacks on them as seriously as we take attacks on ourselves?

Allow me to point out that Kagan’s scheme isn’t so much a response to the recent horrors in Mumbai as it is an example of the Kagan family’s stochastic targeting mechanism for their incitements to war drawing Pakistan’s number yet again, a bit like two coinflips in a row coming up heads. Quoting myself last November when a different Kagan (I lose track) and Michael O’Hanlon wrote a terrible op-ed arguing (literally!) that there’s no cause for concern about the prospects for a successful occupation of Pakistan because it would be feasible “somehow”:

Do Kagan and O’Hanlon actually believe that there could be such a coalition? Do they actually believe any of what they’ve written? It’s as if they believe the US military is capable of achieving absolutely anything, provided we describe their mission with the right adjectives. (“Elite,” “crack,” etc.) Talk about a Care Bear Stare — Kagan and O’Hanlon can remake south Asia without drawing upon the magical energy of the Will of the American People, just as long as they, personally, maintain a sufficiently steely will. They’ll do it somehow.

Following up Sunday’s discussion, it seems any plausible definition of neoconservatism will have to include the axiom: never, under any circumstances, learn from a mistake, since to do so would show weakness to the (real or imagined) enemy. The tale will be told of their charity from Balkh to Kandahar.