US Envoy Visits Simmering Pakistan

Adm. Mike Mullin, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff arrived in Pakistan on Tuesday for hastily arranged briefings regarding an incursion September 3 by US commandos based in Afghanistan.

Pakistani military leaders declared recently that they would attack all foreign forces that crossed the border and threatened the country’s sovereignty.

The US is frustrated by Pakistan’s ambivalence regarding Taliban and al Qaeda militants that use its territory as a safe haven for attacks on US and NATO forces in Afghanistan. Until recently, US forces used airstrikes, artillery attacks and Predator drone attacks to deal with insurgents that had fallen back into Pakistan, so the US commando raids into Pakistan represent a change in strategy. Apparently, President Bush gave the go-ahead for commando attacks in July without notifying anyone in the Pakistani military or government.

The US embassy in Pakistan requested that Mullin come in person to discuss matters with Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and the nation’s top military commander, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.

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