COLUMN: No margin for error in Pakistani relations
With the country in the middle of a recession, the European Union seemingly falling apart and the fresh unrest in the Middle East dominating the headlines, it seems as if the world is really falling apart.
And America, as a self-declared world leader in everything, can’t afford to be making stupid mistakes.
But it happened anyway, when a NATO airstrike killed 26 Pakistani soldiers on Saturday.
NATO has called the airstrike “tragic and unintended,” and it certainly is, considering how shaky relations with Pakistan are already.
They didn’t like that the U.S. entered Pakistani territory to assassinate Osama Bin Laden and the west has shown its good faith in the relations by dropping bombs.
Some of the Pakistanis are lobbying the accusation that the strike was intended. I’m not sure if anyone believes that, but NATO has some serious damage control to do regardless.
We want stability in the Middle East, but it will never happen if we make mistakes like this. Unintentional or not, it undermines everything we are trying to do in the area. NATO has shot itself in the foot.
There is no way to convince the people in the Arab community we mean well when we are doing things like this. What if Pakistan had launched an airstrike that accidentally killed several dozen American troops? I think Pakistan would be in a world of trouble.
It’s true the airstrike was carried out by NATO and not the U.S., but the U.S. is the country lambasted in the eyes of Pakistan. The event has sparked wild protests and even stronger anti-Western sentiment, and the U.S. is going to take the brunt of it all.
Now Pakistan has closed its borders to NATO trucks carrying fuel and supplies to Afghanistan. Our expensive war effort in Afghanistan isn’t going to get any easier if we keep making trouble with the neighbors.
It has to be understood that relations with Pakistan, even shaky relations, are better than no relations at all.
Pakistan has been accused of harboring terrorists, and it’s hard to overlook that it was the country Osama Bin Laden was hiding out in. But their country is not like ours. It’s like when you call someone an awful name because they called you one first: being vengeful does not make anything better.
If this country is to continue to be a world leader, it can’t make blunders this big. If NATO is to get anything accomplished in the region, it can’t be saying, “Oops,” when it is responsible for killing soldiers from cooperating countries.
After the accidental bombing, efforts to spread democracy will seem a lot more like attempts at tyranny. Instability in the Middle East isn’t good for anybody, including the West and the U.S., but our leaders need to start asking themselves if it is worth it at all to interfere in the region if mistakes such as the airstrike are made that threaten to undo everything.
