Pakistan Tips Closer To Disaster

I hate to keep yammering about this, but no one else seems to care. It's like I'm the voice of the Pakistan - US conflict. Which is weird, because as I write this I have a cat on my lap. Seems I should be a little more serious.

Oh, well. It appears our actions in Pakistan may cause 500,000 people to join up with the Taliban.

A controversial new US tactic to mount counter-terrorist operations inside Pakistan has met with fresh hostility, it emerged yesterday, as Pakistani tribesmen representing half a million people vowed to switch sides and join the Taliban if Washington does not stop cross-border attacks by its forces from Afghanistan.

Reacting to American missile attacks in north Waziristan last week, which followed an unprecedented cross-border ground assault earlier this month, tribal chiefs from the area called an emergency meeting on Saturday.

"If America doesn't stop attacks in tribal areas, we will prepare a lashkar [army] to attack US forces in Afghanistan," tribal chief Malik Nasrullah announced in Miran Shah, north Waziristan's largest city. "We will also seek support from the tribal elders in Afghanistan to fight jointly against America."

So, that's going well.