Economist:
"MUCH as Bill Clinton made one final push for Middle East peace before his term in office ended, George Bush appears to be making one final push to capture Osama bin Laden. Last week a team of American commandos crossed into Pakistan to hit an al-Qaeda target without the approval of the Pakistani government...But it's still unclear whether the Pakistani government will help or hinder the campaign. Pakistani officials bristled at last week's attack and the Washington Post notes that 'CIA and US military officials said cooperation is so bad that they now withhold intelligence about the suspected whereabouts of al-Qaeda commanders out of fear that the Pakistanis might tip them off.'...Many inside Pakistan are disappointed that America decided to target the tribal areas with missiles instead of development aid. They question America's lack of attention to the battle for hearts and minds. 'We thought, and we still think so, that the American strategy should have been to stabilize the area rather than look for a needle in a haystack,' Mahmood Shah, a retired civilian security chief for the tribal regions...The knotty situation is perhaps best described by Michael Scheuer, the former chief of the CIA's bin Laden unit, who spoke to the Post. 'Our options are terrible,' he said. "The new president will inherit a fish that is really starting to smell.' "
TW: Update this today about Pakistani troops allegedly firing on US commandos
http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2008/09/trouble_in_pakistan.cfm
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