The discovery of three American soldiers among the dead in a suicide bombing at the opening of a girls’ school in the northwestern Pakistan town of Dir last week reignited the fears of many Pakistanis that Washington was set on invading their country.
Barack Obama has banned the Bush-era term “war on terror” and dithered about sending extra troops to Afghanistan, but across the border in Pakistan, the US president has dramatically stepped up the covert war against Islamic extremists.
US airstrikes in Pakistan, launched from unmanned drones, are now averaging three a week, triple the number last year. “We’re quietly seeing a geographical shift,” an intelligence officer said.
Apparently things look differently once you’re president…
Both friends and family are in uniform (Army and Marine) facing up to the challenges of ending the ruination of decent society among the Pashtuns in Afghanistan and Pakistan by both the Taliban and Al Qaeda. They have no complaints about the support they are getting under the Obama administration, and they are in delighted agreement with General McChrystal’s strategy, especially as it stresses winning over the trust and support of the ordinary people in the region who yearn for security and the end of feeling terrorized in their own land. They are disgusted, however, by the insensitivity to military morale and the ignorance revealed by the ongoing picking at President Obama for his leadership as commander-in-chief.