While there are rumors of back channel talk between the U.S. and Pakistan to patch up the relationship after the November 26 killing of 26 Pakistani troops by U.S. forces, the situation on the ground is unlikely to ever be the same than before the incident.

The U.S. might in future again be able to route some logistic traffic through Pakistan. A ship with U.S. military load arrived in Karachi today. The costs though will be higher now and it is doubtful that the Pakistani military will ever again allowed it to use drones to kill this or that family in the tribal agencies in "signature strikes" because they "behave like terrorists".

My hunch is that that is the real story behind the reuniting of the Pakistani Taliban with the Afghan Taliban:

On the directive of their supreme leader Mulla Mohammad Omar, the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban on Sunday formed a joint five-member Shura or council with Pakistani militant organisations, making a pledge to stop their fight against their own armed forces and instead focus their attention against the US-led forces in Afghanistan.

After weeks of hectic efforts, a high-level delegation of the Afghan Taliban, sent by the Taliban supreme leader, finally succeeded in bringing together different Pakistan militant groups on a single platform and make a promise that they would stop fighting the Pakistani security forces and end suicide attacks, kidnappings for ransom and killing of innocent people in the country, particularly in the militancy-hit tribal areas.
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Mulla Omar, according to Taliban sources, wanted the Pakistani Taliban groups to focus on Afghanistan, where their fight against the foreign forces was in a decisive phase. "Convey my message to the Pakistani Taliban that you have forgotten the real purpose, which is to fight the invading forces in Afghanistan and liberate it from their occupation," said a Taliban leader quoting Mulla Omar.

I believe that the Pakistani military intelligence service ISI has promised the Pakistani Taliban that the drones will not fly again and that it will stop the Pakistani military fight against the Taliban in Pakistan. That, in my view, would be the concession the Pakistani Taliban will have asked for to end the fight within their country and to re-concentrate on Afghanistan.

If this works out as planned the Afghan Taliban, reinforced with Pakistani fighters and resources, will be able to push for more territorial gain in Afghanistan in 2012 than they achieved last year.

Meanwhile the U.S. embassy in Pakistani is working on another likely fruitless project to fight "extremism" in Pakistan:

The three-person unit in the U.S. Embassy public affairs section was established in July. It plans to work with local partners, including moderate religious leaders, to project their counter-extremist messages and push back against the militants' extensive propaganda machine, said U.S. officials.

It will use TV shows, documentaries, radio programs and posters. It also intends to ramp up exchange programs for religious leaders and public outreach to conservative Muslims who previously had little contact with American officials.

"There are a lot of courageous voices speaking out against extremism here in Pakistan," said Tom Miller, head of public affairs at the U.S. Embassy. "Our job is to find out how we can amplify those narratives."

The unit is just now ramping up operations, said officials. It was funded with an initial budget of $5 million that officials hope will grow. Officials declined to provide details on specific programs they are funding or plan to fund, for fear that publicly acknowledging U.S. involvement would discredit their partners.

The money flow is unlikely to stay secret and the blowback against those "moderates" who are dumb enough to take it will be harsh. The U.S. still fails to see that "extremism" in Pakistani is to a large part a reaction to what the U.S. does in Pakistan and elsewhere and not to what it, or its payed surrogates, say.