According to a statement issued by the White House today, President Obama finally called Pakistan, nine days after the fact, to express “regret” over the US attack on a pair of Pakistani military bases and the killings of 24 Pakistani soldiers.
The phone call came three days after the White House announced that it would not call Pakistan and would not offer any apology for killing the Pakistani soldiers, saying that it wanted to wait until the investigation was completed.
Obama reportedly told Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari that the multi-hour bombing of the bases was “not deliberate” and that the killings were a “tragic loss.” Though Obama reportedly promised a “full investigation” nowhere did the word “sorry” or “apologize” appear in the comments.
The change to at least making a phone call was likely aimed at satisfying State Department officials, who were reportedly concerned that Obama’s lack of comment was making the situation worse. Yet the vague nature of the comments, as well as the fact that they came a week and a half after the incident, make it unlikely they will do much to solve a major diplomatic crisis.
Just goes to show the hubris of the American phyche.
Obama , The White House and NATO can do no wrong.
How dare the Pakistani's stand under our bombs and get blown to pieces!
Are we to blame if they do?
Jason, I wonder if it's occurred to you – or anyone else- that the Pakistanis may have finally realized, Dorothy-like, that they actually have a veto over this war. If their current resolve persists and the supply routes remain closed, the Afghan war is over. There is simply no way to conduct it based on the Russian supply routes- which could be cut at any time themselves.
This war was always against Pakistani national interests. The only way to get them into it in the first place was to threaten them with nuclear annihiliation- a threat Musharraf states was in fact delivered. In 2001 that was a plausible threat; the American public was in a mood to back any kind of threat that would allow the military to exact their revenge on the perpetrators of 9/11. But the Pakistanis must now realize that a repeat of those threats would be completely hollow when the objective is to force the continuation of an endless war with no apparent objectives at all.
Pakistan has a veto card and seems to have decided, finally, to play it.
So the war in Afghanistan is over.
If it wasnt deliberate, it certainly was one ginormous mistake!