Juan Cole:

“The fragile Pakistani government of Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani and President Asaf Ali Zardari was deeply embarrassed Wednesday when a massive bombing killed three U.S. soldiers on the ground in that country. The Pakistani public has been increasingly upset about U.S. military and paramilitary (Blackwater/Xe) actions in their country. On Tuesday, several U.S. drone strikes killed a total of 29 persons. The controversy over whether the U.S. is actually fighting a third war, in Pakistan, may have been settled by the troop deaths.

…The bombing differs little from numerous other such attacks in the frontier badlands, but is distinctive because it accidentally revealed that some 200 U.S. troops are on the ground in Pakistan, some 60-100 on a training mission. Those killed had been giving training and support to the Frontier Corps, a Pakistani unit charged with policing the lawless Pashtun areas on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.”

Come on mothers throughout the land,
Send your boys off to Pakistan (or Yemen, or Somalia, or Detroit, or Cleveland, or…..)
Come on fathers, don’t hesitate,
Send your sons off before it’s too late,
Be the first one on your block
To have your boy come home in a box.