NEW DELHI, India — The story is straight out of a Hollywood thriller.

BOSTON — The war that President Barack Obama addressed at West Point Tuesday evening is a war for Pakistan just as much, or more, as it is for Afghanistan. Just as the World War II battles in North Africa were ultimately not about Africa, but about defeating Nazi Germany, saving Pakistan is now our most important goal in the new Great Game against Islamic extremism. Compared to that, Afghanistan is a sideshow.

KARACHI, Pakistan — In a country not associated with plurality, the statics are surprising: 3 million Hindus and about 3 million Christians live in Pakistan. That's about the population of Israel or Denmark. And while the Muslim majority periodically grates with each community — in the early 1990s, the razing of the Ayohdya mosque in India led to a series of reprisal attacks on Hindu temples in Pakistan — both celebrated annual festivals in the last 10 days without incident, and with all the “traditional fervor” they could muster.