U.S. air strike on Pakistan border area

There have been conflicting reports about what happened last night. Coalition forces in Afghanistan say they had been fired on by insurgents who they tracked to the border and then called in an airstrike. The Pakistani military was quickly to respond and called this an unprovoked and cowardly act. It’s unclear whether last night’s engagement involved US military crossing into Pakistan. The US has launched missile strikes into Pakistan in the past. These strikes don’t sit well with Pakistan which considers it a violation of its sovereignty and this analyst says this couldn’t have come at a worse time. Osama Bin Laden is thought to be hiding in the border regions between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Earlier this week the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff repeated concerns that if left unchecked the next terrorist attack on the US could come from this region. This analyst believes Pakistani efforts to get tribal leaders in this area on their side will fail. He says most of those leaders have either been killed or have fled. The analyst says though that the US needs to give the new government in Pakistan a chance to figure these things out. Another analyst says a military response is a short term solution and the US should be considering social and economic help to achieve long term solutions. But in order for that to happen, Washington and Islamabad need to trust each other again.