http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7597529.stm
Pakistan has condemned an alleged raid by foreign troops based in Afghanistan which officials say killed at least 15 villagers in a north-west tribal area.
The South Waziristan raid would be the first ever ground assault into Pakistan by foreign forces from Afghanistan.
Pakistan says the raid was a violation of its sovereignty. On Thursday a US missile killed at least five people in nearby North Waziristan, officials say.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has said Pakistan will not allow any foreign power to carry out attacks on its territory, inciting a wider uprising in the border area.
This "War on Terror" might be an coverhead for all of this but surely this is starting to rank as a point of insanity.
To review:
Iraq was presumed to have been developing Weapons of Mass Destruction and a "premptive war" was declared despite no evidence of Weapons of Mass Destruction ever being found before or after the war. In the five years subsequent, Iraq still remains politically unstable with military insurgence and civil disorder frequently breaking out.
Following the September 11, 2001 attacks the United States launched a military campaign to destroy the al-Qaeda terrorist training camps inside Afghanistan. The US military also threatened to overthrow the Taliban government for refusing to hand over Osama bin Laden and several al-Qaida members. The US made a common cause with the former Afghan Mujahideen to achieve its ends, including the Northern Alliance, a militia still recognized by the UN as the Afghan government.
In late 2001, US Special Forces invaded Afghanistan to aid anti-Taliban militias, backed by US air strikes against Taliban and Al Qaeda targets, culminating in the seizure of Kabul by the Northern Alliance and the overthrow of the Taliban, with many local warlords switching allegiance from the Taliban to the Northern Alliance.
There is still a lot of sabre rattling with Iran because since 2005, Iran's Nuclear Program has become the subject of contention with the West because of suspicions regarding Iran's military intentions. This has led the UN Security Council to impose sanctions against Iran on select companies linked to this program, thus furthering its economic isolation on the international scene.
Now we find that the US this morning has decided to strike the western provinces of Pakistan after the Pakistani government started taking a blind eye to any Taliban style exercises within its borders.
It should be noted that Pakistan differs from the above nations on two main counts:
1. Pakistan is a relatively democratic country and after Pervez Musharraf stood down, there were elections due to be held this Saturday Sep 6. However because US forces unilaterally decided to strike, the outcomes of those elections is almost certainly likely to produce a hostile set of circumstances.
2. Unlike Iraq which never had Weapons of Mass Destruction, or Iran which is presumed to have them, Pakistan is known to actually possess nuclear weapons, and given that they've just been attacked, is it really going to acheive anything by stirring up a hornet's nest? One sure fire way to make someone hate you is to punch them in the nose, which given what's happened this morning, is just not sensible.
I just don't think that strirring them up is a particularly wise idea, and inadvertantly have have already changed the course of an election to a state of direct hostility. Honestly, are the US deliberately trying to make everybody hate them?
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