Pakistan closed the most important supply route for U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan after a coalition helicopter attack killed three Pakistani soldiers at a border post Thursday, raising tensions in a vital relationship for both Islamabad and Washington.
NATO said its helicopters entered Pakistani airspace and hit a target only after receiving ground fire. The alliance expressed condolences to the families of the soldiers and said both nations would investigate the incident.
A lengthy ban on supply trucks would place intense strain on the U.S.-Pakistani relationship and hurt the Afghan war effort. But that was seen as unlikely, as neither Islamabad nor Washington can afford a meltdown in ties at a crucial time in the 9-year-old war.
This incident isn't likely to cause a permanent breach. But it demonstrates why I'm worried about our supply lines that go through an uncertain and unstable ally. As long as we are fighting a mobius war, this problem will continue to plague our fight in Afghanistan and hobble our efforts to get more cooperation from Pakistan to defeat the Taliban.
Wouldn't it be better to have a supply line through a friendly Iran?
So many problems would be solved by getting rid of the mullah regime in Iran.
UPDATE: A bunch of our fuel tankers were torched inside Pakistan:
Suspected militants in southern Pakistan set ablaze more than two dozen tankers carrying fuel for foreign troops in Afghanistan on Friday, highlighting the vulnerability of the U.S.-led mission a day after Pakistan closed a major border crossing.
The Pakistani government shut the Torkham border in the northwest in apparent protest at a NATO helicopter incursion that killed three of its soldiers on the border. ...
The convoy of tankers attacked Friday was likely headed to a second crossing in southwest Pakistan that was not closed. ...
Around 80 percent of the fuel, spare parts, clothing and other non-lethal supplies for foreign forces in landlocked Afghanistan travels through Pakistan after arriving in the southern Arabian sea port of Karachi. The alliance has other supply routes to Afghanistan, but the Pakistani ones are the cheapest and most convenient.
Clearly, Pakistan is just making a statement in reaction to popular opinion rather than seriously trying to shut down our supply line.
But good grief, I do worry about having to supply so many of our troops into landlocked Afghanistan through supply routes that are not nearly reliable enough for my comfort.
UPDATE: Strategypage has a useful post on the affair. I don't worry that Pakistan's government will cut off our supplies. They really do need us, too. (And just what were those Pakistani troops (I assume frontier troops rather than regulars) thinking when they fired on us? That the Taliban have helicopters? That they are fighting with the Taliban and not against them?)
I worry that the Pakistan government will fall to jihadi sympathizers and they will cut off our troops. And I worry about the leverage that the supply lines through Russia give Moscow.
