US drones raining down missiles on the restive tribal region in pursuit of militants on the one hand and suicide bombers blowing themselves up at crowded public places and security establishments on the other, present a picture of the country at war. These incidents, drones and suicide attacks, have caused the deaths of as many as 78 persons during the last two days. A day after, the terrorists attacked a security checkpost in Miranshah and Frontier Constabulary's makeshift camp at Islamabad, 40 people were killed and many more injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside an imambargah in Chakwal on Sunday. Police officials told a foreign wire agency that casualty figure could have been much higher had the bomber, intercepted at the gate, managed to enter the mosque where some 1,200 people were present. The dead and the injured lying in a pool of blood and the body parts scattered all around presented a horrifying sight. President Zardari got it right when he said that such acts of terrorism were being masterminded by those who wanted to bring a bad name to the religion. Those involved in targeting the law enforcement apparatus and killing innocent people certainly deserve no sympathy. But at the same time, the government cannot escape the responsibility of providing security to the citizens by merely alerting them about the presence of suicide bombers in the federal capital and cities across Punjab. PM's Interior Adviser Rehman Malik might have to do a lot of explaining about the serious security lapses in the deadly attacks on the Sri Lankan cricket team, the Police Training Centre at Manawan and the FC Camp in Islamabad. It was distressing to find the Interior Ministry taking no action against the police officers who were caught napping at the time of the Liberty Market incident. So far there has been no official word as to what preventive measures were taken after the provincial government was alerted about these two terror strikes in advance Pakistan is currently caught in a dangerous spiral where its 'inability' to fight the militancy might fall short of the US expectations and result in drone attacks being extended far beyond the troubled tribal region. Even though President Obama has reiterated his commitment to provide Islamabad help besides the military aid, he made it conditional on its action to meet the terror threat. The Americans need to be convinced to dispel the perception that our intelligence apparatus is covertly collaborating with the militants. But at the same time the government should also put its act together and devise a comprehensive policy to defeat the fast spreading scourge.