Most Dangerous Trouble Spot In The World Update

US troops have been sending commando teams over the border to raid Taliban remnants in Pakistan, and the Pakistanis have had enough of that.

Pakistani troops opened fire on US soldiers trying to enter the country's lawless tribal area today, according to reports, marking a dangerous further deterioration in relations between the two anti-terror allies.

Details of the incident, in South Waziristan, are unclear. According to local security officials and tribesmen, however, two US helicopters breached Pakistani airspace in the early hours but were forced to retreat when they came under fire.

The US forces were likely to have been on a hit-and-withdraw mission against suspected militants in the area, similar to the first documented US ground raid into the tribal territory earlier this month, when choppers flew in commandos. That enraged the Pakistani army and public.

One security official in South Waziristan said: "American helicopters came, and there was a space [border] violation. Pakistani scouts [paramilitary troops]) fired artillery as a warning and they left. The helicopters did not land."

Now the Pakistanis are codifying this as a rule, ordering their soldiers to open fire on any US presence that violates their national sovereignty, whether by air or ground.

See, if we bothered to have a relationship with the Pakistanis instead of merely a relationship with Musharraf, we might have better cooperation in this regard. But countries don't like it when you send commandos into their country regardless, especially when they feel their army is already working on the problem.

U.S. military commanders accuse Islamabad of doing too little to prevent the Taliban and other militant groups from recruiting, training and resupplying in Pakistan's wild tribal belt.

Pakistan acknowledges the presence of al-Qaida fugitives and its difficulties in preventing militants from seeping through the mountainous border into Afghanistan.

However, it insists it is doing what it can and paying a heavy price, pointing to its deployment of more then 100,000 troops in its increasingly restive northwest and a wave of suicide bombings across the country.

This is a delicate situation that has metastasized because of bungling by the Bush Administration. Admiral Mike Mullen has been dispatched to Pakistan to try and resolve the dispute. This seems to me like a hasty policy on the part of Bush to grab bin Laden for his legacy which he implemented without contacting Pakistan. That clearly has not produced the desired result.

In general, I think we have to leave this to the locals, as history has proven that it's a far more effective counter-terrorism strategy.