'Hard men' who do what we want. Hmmm.....
It's not just a case of not wanting to be 'involved'. The local hard men are actually better at it than we are. Western Government thinking appears to be...
Worst case - No government. Tribal Areas as a terrorist base. Somali piracy, etc
Middle worst - we kill 600,000 civilians in 24 months; Iraq.
Best Worst - Saddam kills 600,000 in 24 years. But 500,000 of those were volunteers in a war we supported. There were Iraqis going through Valley at the same time as me.
But do we approve of the Pakistanis imposing Government on Tribal Areas that basically don't want it? Self-Determination is just about the fundamental principal of international politics; or should we hand the Falklands back?
I have no quick answers, but current thinking seems to make Best Worst progress steadily to Worst.
Ultimately, we need to be a bit more honest. Then we can start asking our politicians to do the same.