Word: islamabad
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...troops in Angoor Adda, a village in South Waziristan, was followed by stepped up air strikes on suspected militants by pilotless drones. Pentagon officials had suggested in recent weeks that the U.S. would be "testing" the new Pakistani government by stepping up its attacks in western Pakistan to gauge Islamabad's reaction. Previously, U.S. actions had been been limited to launching missile strikes or hot pursuits into Pakistani territory without the consent of the Pakistani government. The Sept. 3 attack was the first significant cross-border U.S. ground strike without prior Pakistani approval - a change approved by President Bush...
...picture was made even more confusing by Wednesday's strike, at a suspected militant training camp in the village of Bagh in South Waziristan. That air-strike came just hours after the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen had visited Islamabad to calm fears about U.S. encroachment on Pakistan's turf. According to a statement issued by the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, "Admiral Mullen reiterated the U.S. commitment to respect Pakistan's sovereignty and to develop further U.S.-Pakistani cooperation and coordination...
...that's not too much of an exaggeration. On Tuesday, the Pakistan's military ordered its forces along the Afghan border to repulse all future American military incursions into Pakistan. The story has been subsequently downplayed, and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Mike Mullen, flew to Islamabad, Pakistan's capital, to try to ease tensions. But the fact remains that American forces have and are violating Pakistani sovereignty...
...effect are going to war with Pakistan's ethnic Pashtuns. They make up 15% of Pakistan's 167 million people. They are well armed and among the most fierce and xenophobic people in the world. It is not beyond their military capabilities to cross the Indus and take Islamabad...
Sounds great. But who will get the development money that all of Washington now seems keen to send east? Christine Fair, a Pakistan expert with the Rand Corp. in Washington, argues that without a reformer in charge in Islamabad, programs such as Biden-Lugar will be "throwing good money after bad." The problems, she says, are systemic. Improving training for police officers won't help until their wages are boosted to make them less vulnerable to bribes--but that would require reforming police pay, which in turn would call for extensive civil-service reform. "That's the problem with Pakistan...