Pakistan Wants The U.S. To Stop Predator Attacks

An MQ-9 Reaper Unmanned Aerial Vehicle taxis into Creech Air Force Base, Nev., March 13. It is the first operational airframe of its kind to land here. This Reaper is the first of many to be assigned to the 42nd Attack Squadron. Senior Airman Larry E. Reid Jr. / Air Force

‘No Predators Please’ -- Newsweek

U.S. cross-border attacks on Pakistani soil are not helping the effort to fight the Taliban and Al Qaeda, says a high-ranking Pakistani official.

Retired Army Maj. Gen. Mahmud Ali Durrani has been a key player in Pakistan's national security policy for the past few years. As ambassador to Washington from 2006 until April, he was at the center of his country's strategic, and often difficult, relations with the United States. Now as National Security Adviser, he not only counsels President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, he also delivers tough messages to Washington, protesting military strikes inside Pakistani territory, and serves as a liaison between the country's two top political leaders and powerful Army Chief of Staff, Ashfaq Kayani. In an exclusive interview with Newsweek's Ron Moreau in his corner office in the Prime Minister's Secretariat in Islamabad, Durrani, 67, discussed how American attacks are undercutting the country's struggle against militants, Pakistan's commitment to battling extremists in its own way, and how the historically testy relations between the country's political leaders and the military are, at least for now, proceeding smoothly.

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My Comment: The Pakistan Government has to blame someone for their failure in the war against the Taliban in the Frontier regions. While it is true that Predator strikes in Pakistan will increase resentment in that country .... it is also true that this situation is a result of Pakistan's failure in combating militant groups, and not doing more to end the the Taliban's open interference in Afghanistan.