NATO airstrike on Pakistani check post was monumental communications failure
Written by: Derek Page, News Assistant
Ties between the United States and Pakistan have sunk to a new low after a NATO airstrike killed 24 Pakistani soldiers last Saturday, Nov. 26. The incident occurred at a Pakistan-Afghan border when a joint US-Afghan operation came under fire and called in NATO helicopters for support.
Unnamed Afghan officials reported Afghan commandos and U.S. Special Forces were operating on the Afghan side of the border when incoming fire from the direction of the Pakistani posts forced them to respond accordingly.
“It was a very sad and unfortunate incident to hear of. My family felt very sorry about the human loss in the attack,” said Muhammad Fahim, a Pakistani graduate student at Old Dominion University.
Fahim believes it will “increase the pressure on the government to step back from the US alliance. On the other hand it will increase support for the militants, which will increase pressure on the military operations. Subsequently, it will increase the already tense relations.”
Wajid Kahn, student at ODU and native of Pakistan, expressed his reaction to the debacle.
I felt “a sudden feeling of sadness and anguish.”
Pakistani officials conceited the assault was unprovoked and continued for over an hour despite informing their coalition counterparts at two joint border centers that an official check post was under attack. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen referred to the accident as “tragic and unintended.”
”There is a great stress on the relationship,” said Major General Athar Abbas, however he spoke about how he does not believe the incident to be permanently damaging to relations.
“It will be the decision of the leadership whether to stop cooperating with NATO, but I don’t think so because we believe that there is a common threat of terrorism. We are both fighting to eliminate terrorists in that area,” said Abbas.
Abbas did note the general publics’ reaction to the incident, as well as that of the Pakistani army and Parliament.
“There is a great sense of resentment and anger,” said Abbas.
Pakistan closed its western border, blocking multiple routes for delivering vital supplies to NATO troops in Afghanistan, and demanded that the US abandon an air base in Pakistan used to operate drone strikes just hours after the attack on Saturday.
The airstrike “negates the progress made by the two countries on improving relations,” said Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a phone call.
The US and NATO have pledged to investigate the incident, and expressed regret at the loss of Pakistani lives.
Consequently, in protest of the incident, Pakistani officials have made the decision during a Cabinet meeting held in Lahore on Tuesday to boycott an upcoming meeting in Bonn, Germany concerning the future of Afghanistan.
Both Fahim and Khan support the decision for Pakistan to remain absent at the conference in Bonn. However, many officials feel the absence of the Pakistani government would be a fiasco considering their relationship with Afghanistan and their potential influence on the Taliban.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said,”Pakistans absence would not be helpful to the efforts aimed at bringing about peace in Afghanistan.”
CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen shared similar qualms.
“Without Pakistan there can’t be a real settlement in Afghanistan. After all, almost all the Taliban leaders are living in Pakistan and only Pakistan can put the pressure on them to come to the negotiation table,” said Bergen.
Officials unanimously agree that Pakistan’s presence at Monday’s conference is vital to the progress in eradicating terrorism in the Middle East and feel that the government’s absence could be damaging to these efforts. Hope still remains that Pakistan will recognize the imperative nature of their presence to the development of peaceful resolution.
