Home pagePress CenterIn the Media Rick Barton, codirector of the CSIS Post-Conflict Reconstruction Project, was quoted by the Associated Press, "U.S. Defends Airstrikes That Angered Pakistan."
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Rick Barton, codirector of the CSIS Post-Conflict Reconstruction Project, was quoted by the Associated Press, "U.S. Defends Airstrikes That Angered Pakistan."
U.S. airstrikes into Pakistan that may have accidentally killed allied fighters have upset the already fragile relations between Washington and Islamabad over how to stem violence in the lawless border region.
Defense Department press secretary Geoff Morrell defended the bombing Wednesday and said it was too early to know whether the strike killed 11 Pakistani paramilitary forces, as alleged by the angry Pakistani Army.
Rich Barton, a Pakistan expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the incident comes at a bad time, when the new Pakistani government is already overwhelmed trying to find its way.
"The bad news with this kind of an incident is that it really distracts from the more important transition that's going on in Pakistan and it could really be exploited as an organizing tool to get people back to thinking the United States is the root cause" of problems in their country, Barton said.
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