I can’t help suspecting that having elected Asif Ali Zardari as president there is a not so secret cabal whose mission is to ensure that Pakistan goes down in flames. So that it can be like Somali, but with the bomb.
It has so many problems, but chief among them are the widespread corruption and its inability to control its borders that has created a state within a state that is more secure as a base of terror than anywhere in Iraq ever was.
Worse is the bizarre reaction Pakistan has adopted to coalition troops pursuing Taliban terrorist across the border.
Yes, it violates Pakistan’s border, I get that, but that sovereignty is already violated by the insurgent army that lives and moves freely in and out of Afghanistan. You’d think that would be of more concern and that doing the math would tell those in charge that eliminating Taliban targets is a bonus. A big bonus. But Pakistan seems to be a two plus two gives us five kind of state.
This gives us incidents like the one that took place yesterday when US and Afghan forces were fired on by Pakistani troops.
The BBC reports that a five-minute skirmish broke out after Pakistani soldiers fired warning shots near two US helicopters. No one was hurt in the incidents and the US maintains its troops did not cross the border from Afghanistan.
Pakistani needs all the help it can get a fact that was clearly underscored by last week’s Marriott Hotel suicide bomb blast that killed 53 people in Islamabad.
On the back of that incident Pakistan said that raids would be carried out in some “hotspots” near the Afghan border, but then you get incidents like this. It really doesn’t help.
