NATO's deadly attack on Pakistan's soldiers: The fallout

An aerial assault on Pakistani military outposts outrages our mercurial ally and sparks a diplomatic crisis. Can the U.S.-Pakistan friendship survive?

Supporters of the religious political party Jamaat-e-Islami
(Image credit: REUTERS/Khuram Parvez)

U.S.-Pakistan relations have gone from bad to worse. Over the weekend, U.S. special forces and Afghan commandos were conducting a mission along the "poorly defined, mountainous border" with Pakistan when they reportedly took incoming fire from two Pakistani outposts. NATO retaliated with air strikes that killed approximately two dozen Pakistani soldiers. Pakistan claims that NATO's two-hour assault was unprovoked, and that NATO ignored Pakistani pleas to stop the attack. Though high-ranking U.S. officials apologized and NATO promised to investigate, thousands of Pakistanis protested in several cities, shouting "Down with America!" and burning an Obama effigy and the U.S. flag. Pakistan has closed its border to trucks delivering supplies to western troops in Afghanistan, and is threatening to bar the U.S. from using a Pakistani base for drone strikes. Can frayed U.S.-Pakistan ties be mended?

Nope. This is the last straw: NATO is foolish to think a mere apology can "wash away its crime," says Pakistan's The Nation in an editorial. Pakistan wisely cut off western supply lines — but that's just a "starting point." It's time that Pakistan showed some courage, namely, with a "swift movement to [disengage] from the USA's so-called War on Terror." We must show the world that we regard our "own citizens' lives with importance equal to, if not greater than, some other state's."

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