“It’s a policy of appeasement,” the Pakistani general in charge of the tribal areas said last month of the “peace treaty” Musharraf signed with the pro-Taliban elders in the region. It’s also now been torn up in the wake of the Red Mosque assault by the local jihadis, who, to punctuate the schism, killed more than 70 Pakistanis over the weekend.

Mush’s reaction? Beg them for reconciliation.

Pakistan held crisis talks with tribal elders to save a peace deal with pro-Taliban militants, amid fears of fresh violence after three weekend suicide attacks left more than 70 dead…

“The government of Pakistan has not scuttled the deal and negotiations with tribal elders continue,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam told a media briefing in Islamabad on Monday.

The chief minister of North West Frontier Province, Akram Durrani, said the authorities “will try to save the peace deal with tribal militants and hope they will revise their decision to scrap it.”

“The deal is vital for peace in the area and, God forbid, if it is cancelled the consequences will be dangerous,” Durrani told reporters after a four-hour meeting with tribal elders, religious scholars and lawmakers.

Roggio thinks his next move may decide the fate of the government. Musharraf might agree: he ordered parts of the criminal complaint against the country’s chief justice to be withdrawn today. The standoff with the judiciary is what got him into political hot water in the first place, so maybe this is his attempt at defusing that situation before the one with the Taliban blows up to the point that he can’t manage both crises.

He’s looking at $750 million in American foreign aid for Waziristan right now. Exit question: How much of it is going to end up buying weapons for Osama?