As U.S. forces routed the Taliban in Afghanistan in October 2001, a Pakistani two-star general with the Inter-Services-Intelligence agency toured the Federally Administered Tribal Areas to warn tribal leaders, "We are next."

In a timely though perhaps overly dramatic move, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani of Pakistan announced last night on national television the extension of army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani for another three years beyond November this year, when his first term was to end.

The Pakistani army showed no hesitation about pursuing and killing Taliban insurgents everywhere except in North Waziristan, one of the seven tribal areas where different terrorist groups have long enjoyed a privileged sanctuary.

It was Pakistan's week in Washington with much talk of a new, deeper geopolitical understanding between the United States and a "major non-NATO ally." The star was Pakistan's army  chief, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, and the country's de facto politico-military power.

Shuja Nawaz, director of the Council's South Asia Center, published "Courting Pakistan" in the Wall Street Journal.  He analyzes the U.S.-Pakistan relationship following last week's "strategic dialogues."

The United States and Pakistan is the world's oddest couple, with an on-again, off-again friendship that has survived since the 1950s. Last week both sides completed a "strategic dialogue" in Washington amid fears that they were headed for another break-up.