Blaming Pakistan for radicalization in America

Second, buried in an otherwise decent Washington Post story about the arrests, we find this questionable assertion:

Analysts said the discovery of the five Americans could further escalate pressure on Pakistan to crack down on militant groups. The Obama administration has said greater cooperation from Pakistan will be critical as the United States sends 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan next year to try to roll back the insurgency there.

I'm not really sure how the facts support that conclusion. Every indication seems to be that these five men followed a "classic" model of radicalization. They were initially radicalized in the U.S. -- perhaps online, perhaps by a charismatic real-world figure -- and then traveled to Pakistan to advance to the next level; once there, they reached out to established members of the jihadi community (and were apparently rebuffed).

None of that is Pakistan's fault. It's not any state's fault, really -- but if anyone is to blame, it's the U.S., which failed to detect and arrest these guys early in the radicalization phase.

(A local Muslim leader told The Guardian that the men must have been radicalized in Pakistan, but it's absurd to think that they left the U.S. for Pakistan under mysterious circumstances and then became indoctrinated.)

Finally, as a friend of mine noted today, the U.S. media have developed an annoying habit of linking this case to the David Headley case, Najibullah Zazi, and other recent terror arrests. There's no proof of any connection, as State Department flack Phi Crowley said during today's press briefing.

First of all, there is an emergent case in Chicago. I would not link that case and these individuals in any way. And secondly, because all we know at this point is you have five individuals from the Washington, D.C. area who have made their way to Pakistan, I would not draw any inferences as to what that means. That's why we are going to chat with them, investigate this, and then we'll draw some conclusions going forward.

If you want to write a serious trend story about domestic radicalization, that's one thing. But to lump these cases together simply because they all involve allegedly-radicalized Muslims is lazy.