Ted Rall: Logic Bomb-As Usual, Pakistan About to Explode

WAGAH BORDER CROSSING, PAKISTAN/INDIA--The first indication that Pakistan is a mass of internal contradictions occurs at the airport. In the arrivals area there are two passport lines--one for men, the other for "unaccompanied women and children." Appalling at first glance, but women love this manifestation of gender segregation. "The women's line moves a lot faster," an American woman who lives in Pakistan told me.

Moving fast was a good idea. Islamist leaders of the Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) and its affiliated Jamia Hafsa madrassah were locked in a Branch Davidian-type standoff with Pakistani security forces. After months of Taliban-style vigilantism, including the kidnapping of 10 Chinese nationals they accused of working in a bordello masquerading as a massage parlor and seizing control of a children's library, government troops had surrounded the complex.