Editorial: Alienating Allies: Arab News

The slaying in a US airstrike on Tuesday of 11 Pakistani paramilitary troops on the Pakistani side of the Afghan border is an outrage which demonstrates the bitter failings of the Bush White House foreign policy. Put bluntly, the Americans have still not learned to respect their allies and understand that those allies cannot fall into precise steps behind Washington's lead in the war against terror.

More than a thousand Pakistani troops have perished fighting Taleban militants and their local supporters in the North West Frontier region bordering Afghanistan. President Pervez Musharraf tried the big stick to smash Taleban support and failed. Now Pakistan's new coalition government is taking the sensible approach of seeking to negotiate with the local tribes in order to end their armed confrontation with Islamabad and, by extension, their support for the Taleban.

Whatever Washington's suspicions, there may still be Taleban sympathizers in the Pakistan Army and in particular, its intelligence services, no one can doubt the country's deep opposition to terrorism. A thousand dead soldiers are surely proof enough of that.

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