Spin masters from Washington to Brussels to Kabul are bound for many a sleepless night. World public opinion has been relentlessly shocked and awed by the chimera that the United States and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) are "winning" the AfPak combo war.
Now for the facts on the ground. Immediately after the US government decided to "suspend" US$800 million in aid to the Pakistan army, Pakistan Defense Minister Ahmed Mukhtar told local Express TV channel, "If at all things become difficult, we will just get all our forces back" - hinting there would be no more troops from Islamabad fighting Pashtun-majority guerrillas in the tribal areas.
Mukhtar couldn't have been more explicit; "If Americans refuse to give us money, then okay ... We cannot afford to keep the military out in the mountains for such a long period."
Arguably not many Afghans will feel "the same kind of pain" when confronted by the assassination of Ahmad Wali Karzai, the president's half-brother, a major drug dealer, an asset on the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) payroll and the top powerbroker in Kandahar as head of the Kandahar provincial council.
