The killing of an alleged 28 Pakistani soldiers by NATO forces will surely take the alliance with Pakistan to an entirely new low. Details are currently murky, but the scale of the mistake is pretty clear:
“Even if the U.S. thinks Pakistan is an unreliable and undependable ally, how does it think such an incident will go down with public opinion in Pakistan?” asked Omar R. Quraishi, the opinion editor at The Express Tribune, an English-language daily in Karachi.“U.S. is funding civil society initiatives to the tune of millions of dollars, but attacks like this won’t help,” he said in an interview. “The U.S. should take more care.”
Imran Khan, an opposition politician who has recently experienced a surge in his public support, urged the Pakistani government to break its military alliance with the United States. “The time has come to leave America’s war,” Mr. Khan thundered while speaking at a political rally in Shujaabad in Punjab Province Saturday evening. “The attack was carried out by those for whom we have destroyed our own country,” he added, alluding to a popular perception here that Pakistan has suffered economically and in terms of human lives because of its partnership with the United States.
The Dish 