Jeffrey Goldberg, Bloomberg

Here is some of what we know about the disorderly, nuclear-armed state of Pakistan: We know that the world’s most notorious terrorist, Osama bin Laden, found refuge there for several years. We know that bin Laden’s organization, al-Qaeda, has moved its headquarters to Pakistan’s sovereign territory.

We know that Lashkar-e-Taiba, the terrorist group that was responsible for devastating attacks in Mumbai in 2008, maintains a 200-acre campus near Lahore. And we know that Pakistan’s intelligence agency has given direct support to terrorist groups, including Lashkar and the Haqqani Network, which is responsible for the deaths of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.

Pakistan, it seems, would be a natural candidate for inclusion on the “state sponsors of terrorism” list that the U.S. State Department produces each year.

But it isn’t on the list.

Here is some of what we know about Cuba. Cuba is an impoverished autocracy. Its superannuated leaders are gradually opening their country’s economy. Cuba is reducing the size of its military, it has condemned al-Qaeda and it poses no national-security threat to the U.S. No serious intelligence analyst believes that Cuba is still funding or arming foreign insurgencies.

But Cuba is on the list. So what, exactly, has it done to merit inclusion? ...