Suspected US missile strike kills 6 in Pakistan, page 1

Wow, we just don't know what to quit do we?

Here are some of what I thought were highlights of the article.

According to a U.S. Embassy statement, Mullen "reiterated the U.S. commitment to respect Pakistan's sovereignty and to develop further U.S.-Pakistani cooperation and coordination on these critical issues that challenge the security and well-being of the people of both countries."

President Bush made a similar statement about Pakistan's sovereignty in July after meeting with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani in Washington.

These were obviously empty words because it goes on to say:

Since then, suspected U.S. missile attacks inside Pakistan have intensified, and U.S. commandos staged a helicopter-borne ground assault in a South Waziristan village Sept. 3.

It sounds like we might be using Pakistan as a scapegoat:

American officials complain Pakistan has not done enough to keep militant groups from using the tribal belt as a base to stage attacks in Afghanistan. The tribal areas are semiautonomous regions where the Pakistani government has traditionally had limited influence.

Looks like the Pakistani's think so too:

Many Pakistanis say the country is being made a scapegoat for Western failures in Afghanistan and contend the cross-border attacks only fuel militancy.

But this isn't factual because the article states the Pakistan is trying to do what it can to stop the militant groups. It would seem they are just not having much luck with their offensives, kind of like us.

But it insists it is doing its best to flush out militants and paying a heavy price. It points to the deployment of 120,000 soldiers in the northwest, heavy losses by security forces, and recent military offensives that have drawn a wave of retaliatory suicide attacks by the Taliban.

One such offensive, against insurgents in the Bajur border region, has garnered U.S. praise amid signs it is helping reduce violence on the Afghan side of the border.

On Wednesday, Pakistani troops backed by jet fighters killed at least 19 suspected insurgents there, officials said. The army says more than 700 suspected militants and 40 soldiers have died in six weeks of fighting. It declines to estimate civilian casualties.

The US is making it sound like they aren't doing ANYTHING at all as if to plant it into people's minds that it warrants us taking matters into our own hands by carrying out attacks in their country.

Thankfully Pakistan is standing up for itself:

Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, the army's chief spokesman, told the AP on Tuesday that Pakistani commanders had received orders to fire on any intruding forces following the Sept. 3 cross-border raid.

Here's the really sad part and this may be why we are doing it anyway regardless of what Pakistan says. We have leverage over them.

Some analysts said it was unlikely Pakistan would risk losing billions in American aid by targeting U.S. soldiers or aircraft. Civilian leaders have stressed that they must solve the issue through diplomacy.

They basically just slipped in a polite warning. You attack our troops and we'll take away your allowance.

Looks like someone heeded the warning:

"We cannot pick up guns and say that 'here we are coming,'" Defense Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar told Dawn News television Wednesday. "I don't want to say anything which can jeopardize this relationship we have with the Americans on the issue of terrorism."

Translation: Even though it is the Americans who would be responsible for jeopardizing this relationship I am fully aware that we get a butt load of money from them and if I stand up to them I won't get a dime.