‘Unable or unwilling!’

It is becoming pathetic to see the Pakistani state whimpering its protests against the spiralling aggression against its territory and people by NATO and the US. The government finally saw fit to register a protest with NATO HQ in Brussels while Pakistani security forces blocked only one, an done wonders why, of two vital NATO supply routes – a mere symbolism rather than an actual act of reciprocal hostility. Even worse was President Zardari’s request to the CIA Chief not to breach Pakistan’s sovereignty. He should have refused to meet the CIA Chief.
Given how NATO has now directly targeted the Pakistan military by attacking an FC post, this is effectively an act of naked aggression. So it has become incumbent upon the Pakistani state to order its military to retaliate in kind. We have had the FATA tribesmen protest the drone strikes and there is a general view that acts of terrorism will probably increase in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after these NATO attacks. The Governor of KP has condemned these attacks and demanded a review of the way the US-led ‘war on terror’ was being conducted. The Senate has called for shooting down of the drones. But the government continues to give the impression that either it is unable or unwilling to respond in kind to the aggression being carried out by the US and NATO against Pakistan – despite the technical capability to do so. At this time the nation has a right to ask why we are accumulating such expensive and state of the art weaponry and why we are maintaining such a large military, all with taxpayers’ money which could be diverted to other developmental causes, if this military machine cannot protect its people or the country’s borders?