Stun Valley: Swat's ski resort, where Pakistanis played -- until the Taliban torched it.

Grimmest news this morning from Pakistan, where the U.S. will very soon launch a giant offensive against the Taliban there and in neighboring Afghanistan that will drain billions of dollars from our recession-fucked economy.

Here's how Agence France Presse describes what's happening in the aptly named Swat Valley:

In case you're wondering, the Swat Valley is not some anus mundi place like western Iraq. No, it's a verdant, Colorado-looking area that wealthy Pakistanis used to flock to for vacations and skiing.

Well, they used to go to Malam Jabba to ski. Until the Taliban torched it last June.

For a broader — and scarier — view, check out Ahmed Rashid's "Pakistan on the Brink" in the latest New York Review of Books. Frightening for Americans and probably costly in lives and money in the near future, as Rashid points out:

Highly unstable Pakistan, by the way, has between 60 and 100 nuclear weapons, Rashid notes, and a rapidly growing anti-American sentiment among the general populace. Never mind that the Taliban are gobbling chunks of Pakistan as we speak.