I know this is already in the news, but actually watching Pakistani President/General Musharraf just now as he said the magic words on BBC World – “let’s just mine their entire border” – certainly had a more startling effect than just reading about it.

It was especially bizarre considering that the president is quite soft-spoken; coming out of his mouth, the sentence certainly did not sound like the ravings of a lunatic. He was irritated by blame coming from Karzai of Kabul about alleged terrorist infiltration from Pakistan. His advice was for Hamid to “put his house in order” first.

What was really ironic, however, was the fact that in the end of the interview, aimed at a Western audience, Karzai asked people to consider the local realities of life in Pakistan before criticizing them for failing to have US-style “democracy.” Fair enough, no?

Yet Musharraf certainly seemed to be asking the viewer to ignore the local realities of life in Pakistan when he suggested winning the war on terror by building a Great Wall of Pakistan and accompanying minefield all along a wild, mountainous, snowy border partially inhabited by hostile tribal groups.

The “did I really just hear that guy say that ‘we are experts in mining’ and let’s just mine their entire border?” shock factor aside, I mean, how?