Af/Pak whac-a-mole

A top Pakistani Taliban commander says he has sent thousands of fighters to neighboring Afghanistan to rebuff incoming U.S. troops, a claim that comes as a Pakistani army offensive is believed to have pushed many of his men to flee their main redoubt.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2009-12-23-pakistan-taliban_N.htm

Whac-A-Mole is an arcade redemption game. A typical Whac-A-Mole machine consists of a large, waist-level cabinet with five holes in its top and a large, soft, black mallet. Each hole contains a single plastic mole and the machinery necessary to move it up and down. Once the game starts, the moles will begin to pop up from their holes at random. The object of the game is to force the individual moles back into their holes by hitting them directly on the head with the mallet, thereby adding to the player's score. The more quickly this is done the higher the final score will be.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whac-A-Mole

Our battle against the Taliban is a repetitious and futile task. No matter where the Taliban is "whacked", it will pop up again some where else.