The most important escalation of the war might be the one the President didn’t mention at West Point.

The White House “has authorized an expansion” of the CIA-lead killer drone campaign in Pakistan, to “parallel” the troop surge in Afghanistan, the New York Times reports. “American officials are talking to Pakistan about the possibility of striking in Baluchistan [province] for the first time… because that is where Afghan Taliban leaders are believed to hide.”

You bet U.S. officials are talking. They’re talking right on the Times’ op-ed page. Seth Jones is a RAND Corporation analyst who now works in Kabul for Brigadier General Edward Reeder, the head of Combined Forces Special Operations Component Command. In an opinion piece in today’s Times, Jones argues that “the United States and Pakistan must target Taliban leaders in Baluchistan.”

“The Afghan war is organized and run out of Baluchistan. Virtually all significant meetings of the Taliban take place in that province, and many of the group’s senior leaders and military commanders are based there,” Jones adds in the piece, which identifies him only as a “civilian adviser to the American military.” It’s yet another example of the increasingly complicated combination of roles that think tank employees are playing in today’s security environment — from policy analysts to pundits to wartime consiglieres.

Jones doesn’t advocate for some full-scale invasion of Baluchistan. Instead, he suggests either conducting ” police and intelligence operations” to “capture Taliban leaders” there. Or, Jones adds, the U.S. could just unleash its drones in the area. Looks like that option may be awfully close to being exercised.

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