Pakistan, April 15 -- Hassankhel and Hangu have delivered the same message in two forms. In one case, a policeman was kidnapped and martyred, the second such incident in the area within 72 hours. In the other, gunmen attacked police assigned to guard a polio team just as Pakistan launched its second nationwide anti-polio drive of the year.

A country reveals itself in the way it treats the men asked to stand first in danger. The policeman on a rough road in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is not an abstraction. He is the face of the republic where the republic is tested hardest. Similarly, the escort beside a vaccinator is not a stage property in a public-health campaign. He is the guarantee that the state will reach a child before fear does. When suc...