Brinkmanship!

THREE US Congressmen, who visited Pakistan and met President Musharraf and Prime Minister Gillani last Friday, have said that US commandos were ready to conduct raids inside Pakistan’s tribal areas. They gave two reasons for the impatience on the part of Washington: Islamabad had failed to disrupt the militants’ training camps and crossborder attacks; and it had shown hesitation to launch joint operations in the area. The language used by one of these Congressmen was quite provocative. “Either Pakistan does more,” he told The Houston Chronicle, “Or we will be taking things into our own hands.” Washington has of late developed a strong perception, bordering on schizophrenia, of an imminent strike inside the US, directed from Pakistan’s tribal areas. The perception has been reinforced by reports of a 40 percent rise in violent attacks against US-led forces in Afghanistan.