Bush the Great Protector

"American officials say that they will notify Pakistan when they conduct limited ground attacks like the Special Operations raid last Wednesday in a Pakistani village near the Afghanistan border, but that they will not ask for its permission. . . .

"It is unclear precisely what legal authorities the United States has invoked to conduct even limited ground raids in a friendly country. A second senior American official said that the Pakistani government had privately assented to the general concept of limited ground assaults by Special Operations forces against significant militant targets, but that it did not approve each mission."

Schmitt and Mazzetti write that Pakistani officials say that last week's U.S. Special Operations raid in a Pakistani village near the Afghanistan border "achieved little except killing civilians and stoking anti-Americanism in the tribal areas.

"'Unilateral action by the American forces does not help the war against terror because it only enrages public opinion,' said Husain Haqqani, Pakistan's ambassador to Washington, during a speech on Friday. 'In this particular incident, nothing was gained by the action of the troops.'"

Jane Perlez writes in the New York Times that "the chief of the Pakistani Army said Wednesday that his forces would not tolerate such incursions and would defend the country's sovereignty 'at all costs.' . . .

"Describing the anger in the Pakistani Army over the American raid, a senior Pakistani official with responsibility for national security said in an interview on Wednesday that the raid was particularly 'stupid' because it lacked a serious target.

"Four 'foot soldiers' in the nexus of Taliban and Qaeda forces and an estimated 16 civilians, including women and children were killed, said the official, who declined to be named because of the delicate relationship between Pakistan and the United States."

At a September 2006 press conference, Bush explicitly ruled out the idea of sending special forces to Pakistan because "Pakistan is a sovereign nation. In order for us to send thousands of troops into a sovereign nation, we've got to be invited by the government of Pakistan."

Afghanistan Watch

Ann Scott Tyson writes in The Washington Post that Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, "issued a blunt assessment yesterday of the war in Afghanistan and called for an overhaul in U.S. strategy there, warning that thousands more U.S. troops as well as greater U.S. military involvement across the border in Pakistan's tribal areas are needed to battle an intensifying insurgency. . . .

"He said the new influx of U.S. forces into Afghanistan that Bush announced Tuesday -- an Army brigade and Marine battalion with a total of about 4,500 troops -- does not meet the demands of commanders there, but is 'a good start.'"

Iraq Watch

Andrew Gray writes for Reuters: "Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Wednesday the war in Iraq had entered its 'endgame' and urged the next U.S. president to continue a cautious approach to troop cuts. . . .

"'I have cautioned that no matter what you think about the origins of the war in Iraq, we must get the endgame there right. I believe we have now entered that endgame,' he said.