US strikes within Pakistan.
Honestly, I'm amazed it took this long. It seems odd that the USA hadn't come under fire from 'anti-Afghan' (at least that's what they call them here) forces along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and that strikes against such forces along the border hadn't occurred before yesterday.
It seems, to me at least, that much of the American uneasiness, and perhaps even inability, in the past to use force against such elements in Pakistan was a result of their dependence on the ruling Pakistani military under General Musharraf. While Musharraf continues to rule Pakistan as President, his role now is much more minimal and, by far, less all-powerful as before. With a civilian government now controlling the nation, the USA is now perhaps less concerned about angering the Pakistani government than it was before. Pakistan's Prime Minister can condemn the USA for killing some of its troops in what the USA may term 'friendly-fire'; however, this condemnation will not have the same impact on the 'Afghan-mission' as anything said by the Pakistani military (which called it a 'completely unprovoked and cowardly act').
So why am I amazed? Well, I guess I shouldn't be. Pakistan-US relations have deteriorated somewhat over the past few months. Having supported Musharraf and the army, while promoting democracy in Pakistan (because it had to, and not necessarily because it wanted to), the US Government has found it difficult to maintain a balance between supporting the army (because it obviously needs the thousands of Pakistani Army members currently stationed along the border) and supporting the pro-democracy movements of the PML-N and the PPP (remember - Musharraf and the pro-democracy movements despise each other).
This recent glitch in Pak-American relations is perhaps just another in a series of such problems that have surfaced in the past few months. I wonder what will happen next. But with Pakistan, I guess you can never know...
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