Sir: Can Pakistan defend itself effectively if an adversary either from the northern borders or from the eastern border attacks it, when only a handful of terrorists, operating from across our northern borders, repeatedly play havoc with the country’s defence system and retreat to their safe havens after killing and taking scores of our soldiers prisoners? In the latest gruesome incident, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has claimed to have beheaded the seven soldiers who were abducted during Sunday’s terrorist attack on Upper Dir. It seems the entire Waziristan region is under the control of the TTP militants. The writ of the state does not exist there anymore. In other parts of the country too, terrorists explode bombs, attack mosques and shrines and kill people at will. The bitter truth is that we seem to be failing as a nation both externally, in the context of the ongoing confrontation with the US and NATO countries over the container transit facility, and internally due to our inability or reluctance to take on terrorists decisively. ANONYMOUS Karachi