NATO Admits Deadly Attack on Pakistan

Los Angeles Times photo trucks held up by closure of Pakistan-Afghan border

NATO has admitted it is “highly likely” it was responsible for an attack by warplanes and helicopters that killed dozens of Pakistan soldiers on an Afghan border post near Mohmand. Pakistan forces returned fire.

Reuters and Al Jazeera said the toll could reach or exceed 30. It was deadliest attack on Pakistan forces by NATO since it invaded neighboring Afghanistan after 9/11.

"Pakistan's sovereignty was attacked early this morning," said Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. "This is our Pakistan and we have to defend it," told the Wall Street journal.

“Close air support was called in, in the development of the tactical situation, and it is what likely caused the Pakistan casualties,” Brig. Gen. Carsten Jacobson, a spokesman for NATO said. He apologized.

News reports said NATO forces were involved in an anti-Taliban operation in the Khyber region of northwestern Pakistan near the Afghan border.

Relations between Islamabad have deteriorated as the war seems to drone on without end. And U.S. military and government officials have accused Pakistan of giving some of the ammunition and other aid it delivers to anti-Afghanistan government groups.

In some cases NATO forces allegedly were killed with these munitions.

Pakistan was outraged by the Navy Seal attack inside its territory that resulted in the execution of Osama bin Laden.

Afghan President has simultaneously criticized the U.S. for allegedly killing civilians not involved in the conflict.

In the U.S., support for the war has declined as casualties climb at the same time American commanders say they are winning. Intense pressure to cut government spending adds to the pressure to pull out of the graveyard of empires.

Pakistan, meanwhile, said it returned fire on the attack early Saturday. There was no information on NATO suffered casualties.

“Pakistani troops effectively responded immediately in self-defense to NATO’s aggress with all available weapons,” its military said in a statement.

Fighting Erupts Between Pakistan and NATO

Simmering relations between Pakistan and NATO erupted nto fighting early Saturday when American choppers killed 25 soldiers at a border post near the town of Jamrud.  More Pakistan troops were wounded.

Dawn, the BBC, Los Angeles Times, Reuters, the Times of India and others reported the attack, which was followed immediately by the closure of the main transport route into Afghanistan. They quoted Pakistani TV, military and government officials.

The attack occurred in the same area where Pakistan forces have been fighting the Taliban.

NATO said it was aware an incident had occurred but it didn’t have details.

Relations between Islamabad and Washington have grown increasingly tense. Pakistan is accused of providing some support to anti-Afghan governments.

The U.S. incursion into Pakistan to kill Osama bin Laden outraged our main ally in the Afghan war. In turn the fact that Pakistan had allowed the author of the 9/11 attacks to hide in its territory for years made things even worse.

This was at least the second such incident, but the previous one involved only two dead and the two sides worked it out.

Our Allies in Pakistan and Afganistan Kill Us And Insult Us

   
     The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost our nation trillions, as our infrastructure falls apart. No value can be put on blood. Cops, teachers, firefighters, hospital workers are laid off. Schools are closed.
    
     Yet when one of our generals, Peter Fuller, tells the truth about what is going on he gets fired.
    
     Daniel Petraeus and other commanders have known from the start that Pakistan supported the Taliban and Haqqani networks and other insurgents. There are so many groups fighting us the media had to create a new word: militants.
    
     American soldiers and contractors have been killed in Pakistan and Afghanistan with weapons and ammo the U.S. provided Pakistan.
    
     Despite claims by Petraeus and others that we are winning, casualties in Afghanistan are at their highest level ever. During the Vietnam War a more skeptical nation recognized "the five o'clock follies" for what they were.
    
     One famous joke: In 1969 IBM's smartest computer was asked when the war would be over at the current kill rate of Viet Cong and NVA. The answer was 1967.
    
     The only warrior to ever defeat the Afghans was Alexander the Great, and he had to marry one of their princesses to get a deal.
    
     The big difference between Afghanistan and Vietnam is that there are no draftees. Should that justify fighting a war we have no interest in?
    
     Afghan President Hamid Karzai had insulted America on numerous occasions. He made it clear he wanted our military to die before risking killing an Afghan civilian.
    
     When he said Afghanistan would support Pakistan if the U.S. attacked it, Maj. Gen. Fuller said:
    
     “Why don’t you just poke me in the eye with a needle! You’ve got to be kidding me … I’m sorry, we just gave you $11.6 billion and now you’re telling me, ‘I don’t really care’?”
    
     He also said NATO would rather teach Afghans how to fish than buy them fish. But they would prefer to just get more free fish.
    
   

The Neutrality of Language

It seemed so horrible when I first heard

Though that Kabul suicide bombing blast lent just the right tone

For the day some said would be the apocalypse

But if it were really true would we have even heard

It only takes a few minutes to get over things these days anyway

And if there is even a faint pulse a blood pulp can be kept alive

When a bullet to the head would be more merciful

Or bullets to the chest and head like Bin Laden

Those covered in blood learn so many neutral ways to explain it

Things not even a Primo Levi would try to make sense of

Let's just call it post-traumatic stress disorder

Because there are so many neutral ways

To tell stories that shouldn't even be imagined Let alone told

A rape is a sexual assault

A bloody bombing is the work of "militants"

Kind of makes you wonder what you call really bad people

It's unlikely a Shakespeare or Camus would be up to it

Better left to an Edgar Allan Poe or even Stephen King

But our world clearly passed even them by years...

Jihadist Humor

While it might seem impossible to make a funny movie about would-be terrorists, British director Chris Morris has found a way in the Four Lions.

The director known for his spoofs of TV news stories, in a Monty Python style, tells the story of a group of Muslims who have grown up in England but want to be part of the holy war against infidels.

It's never clear why. Omar, the leader, has a home, a beautiful wife and an adorable son. He uses Disney'sThe Lion King to teach his boy what is right and wrong.

There's no talk of the invasion of Iraq, and these Jihadists have been so deeply coopted by Western culture that they sing "Dancing In The Moonlight" on the way to their mission to blow themselves up during the London Marathon. They call each other "bro."

The "Jihadists" use derogatory terms for Pakistanis.

The main issue, as Omar's wife puts it, is to find the right place to die. His son tells him not to worry, that his head will be in heaven before it hits the ceiling.

The incompetence of these four -- a fifth joins them -- is matched by the police and civilians. A friend-boss can't see the warning signs, even when Omar asks for permission to go to Pakistan for two weeks, claiming he is attending a wedding.

Omar (Riz Ahmed) really will be attending a terrorist training camp with his friend, Waj (Kayvan Novak).

Spoiler alert/go to next paragraph: Omar, apparently not seeing the arrow pointing which way a missile launcher should aimed, tries to bring down a drone. Instead his missile goes backwards, killing terrorist leaders.

After being told they are "f.... Mr. Beans," they are sent home to continue insulting each other on who is most willing to die for Allah.

In the background it is clear that the police are catching considerable activity in their surveillance cameras, but are they after the right Muslims?

They real Jihadists do everything but take out an ad so there should be no mistakes. One of them raps: "I'm the Mujihadeen, and I'm making a scene, now you are going to feel what the boom boom means." 


Barry, the white Muslim, played by Nigel Lindsay, speaks at public forums defending Islam. "If you think we are all terrorists, why shouldn't we be?" Earlier, Barry had placed a cake with twin towers in a synagogue on the anniversary of 9/11. A speaker at one of these rallies says Muslims are misunderstood and shouldn't be feared.

The fourth lion, Faisal, played by Adeel Akhar, tries to teach crows how to fly bombs into targets.

A fifth Muslim, Hassan, played by Arsher Ali, is recruited to join them.

They argue over what they should bomb. Barry wants to bomb a mosque to inflame moderates. Omar persuades them to get disguises, put bombs under them, and blow themselves up during the London Marathon.

A suggestion that they blow up the Internet by jumping off a tree and landing ass-first on a laptop is rejected.

Spoiler alert/go to next paragraph: One lesson is brutally learned. Never try to employ the Heimlich Maneuver on someone who has a suicide bomb underneath his costume.

All five lions blow themselves up at various points, taking some police and an innocent cafe owner with them. A police sharpshooter, told to take out a man in a bear disguise, shoots a man in a "Wookie" costume instead, allowing Omar to escape for the time being. The sharpshooter insisted the man he shot was the right man by virtue of the fact that he shot him. This is caused a tautology in logic classes.

The story isn't that much unlike some real events. Najibullah Zazi, a Denver man who was preparing to blow up a train on the anniversary of 9/11 in New York City, got all the way to Manhattan without being stopped. Police had been watching him for months. Fortunately, he couldn't figure out how to make his peroxide bomb.

A security expert, defending the police reaction to the attack on the marathon in Four Lions, said, "Police shot the right man but the wrong man exploded."

One lesson, explained by Omar's boss, Matt, is that most loud bangs are not bombs, they are usually scooters backfiring.

Although the movie had a reasonably good run in the U.K. after its premiere Jan. 24 at the Sundance Film Festival, don't expect to see it at your neighborhood theater anytime soon. It might be as controversial as the concept of building a mosque near "Ground Zero." It is available on Amazon's U.K. site.

As for Morris, he has said trying to create controversy makes films boring. "I feel in a weird way that this is a good-hearted film. It's not a hate film, so I would hope that that aspect would come through."

Follow Robert Weller on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mozart99

Previously published on the Huffington Post