I remember I said something awhile ago about drone and helicopter strikes in Pakistan as an undeclared war. Here’s their reaction:
Wednesday’s helicopter incursion appeared to have crossed a line for the Pakistanis that “could lead to some very serious consequences,” a senior Pakistani military officer said. The Americans, he said, “underestimate the reaction” to something that “amounts to no more and no less than attacking the Pakistani army.”
This has always been the strategic limitation of airpower counterterrorism, Exum and Kilcullen always warned against it.
The Pakistanis said that after U.S. helicopters “engaged through cannon fire” with the post, the soldiers fired warning shots with their rifles. The helicopters responded with two missiles that destroyed the post, killing three soldiers and wounding the rest.
ad_iconWithin hours, Pakistan had ordered the nearby border crossing at Torkham closed and NATO supply trucks were idling there, according to transporters stuck at the pass and officials in the region. The pass, which lies north of Peshawar, is the main entry point for U.S. and NATO fuel and supplies transported from the Pakistani port of Karachi over land into Afghanistan.
Our problem is our inability to identify the enemy and thus confuse it with ‘allied’ troops. When insurgents are supported by government forces, we shouldn’t be surprised when we accidently kill the latter while pursuing the former.
*changed the original title because I forgot about Yemen.
