The Frenemy of My Frenemy is My Frenemy?

Ever since their landing in Afghanistan, our allies have badgered Pakistan to make no distinction between Pakistani and Afghan Taliban; and they have made every possible distinction between the two loosely affiliated groups - to the extent of pressing us hard and consistently to attack the Afghan Taliban at the expense of our own struggle with the domestic baddies in Swat, South Waziristan, Orakzai, and everywhere else.

More recently, their strategy in Afghanistan has apparently shifted. The Karzai government, they insist, is holding talks with them, purportedly with a view to reaching agreement over a future political dispensation. The Pentagon approves and the State Department appreciates this moment of truth. 

Happy ending, right? All parties embracing one another in an inclusive peace for the cameras, and all the accompanying nonsensical political oratory before the Afghan factions return to another round of mutual bloodletting? Wrong.

Our allies' obsession with Pakistan zapping the Afghan Taliban shows no signs of wearing away; they would (still) have Islamabad search and destroy the Afghan Taliban, although they highly appreciate the Karzai-led Kabul befriending them. 

Heck, this is getting far too disconcerting; what was that strategic saw again? The frenemy of my frenemy is my frenemy?