Pakistani Fury Over Airstrikes Imperils Training

[RamboLiberal]

Source: NY Times

The Pakistani military is so angry over the American airstrikes here last week that it is threatening to postpone or cancel an American program to train a paramilitary force in counterinsurgency for combating Islamist militants, two Pakistani government officials said.

Some Pakistani officials are convinced that the Americans deliberately fired on their military, killing 11 men from the very paramilitary force the Americans want to train, an accusation the Americans deny.

The uncertainty over the program reflects how deeply scarred the United States’ alliance with Pakistan, already strained, has been since the June 10 airstrikes, Pakistani officials and Western diplomats said.

The $400 million training program is intended to combat militancy by fielding a paramilitary force, called the Frontier Corps, from among the tribes that live in the border areas. It was a compromise between American and Pakistani officials looking for the least intrusive way to fortify security in an area where the Pakistani government has rejected the idea of American soldiers and where even the regular Pakistani Army is often not welcome.

Ending or delaying the program, which is already under way, would deny the United States what little leverage it has in the tribal areas to combat a rising number of cross-border attacks from Pakistan into Afghanistan against American and NATO forces this year.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/18/world/asia/18pstan.html?hp

[grytpype]

1. Wow, it looks like Bush isn't gonna catch bin Laden! What about his legacy???

This is a major crisis!!!!!

[Seabiscuit]

2. If anyone fired on Pakistan's military, it was probably Blackwater mercenaries.