President Obama: Apologize to Pakistan NOW

In the wee hours of Nov. 27, U.S.-NATO and Afghan forces based in Afghanistan’s Kunar province engaged a Pakistani military outpost in Pakistan’s tribal agency of Momand. Little information is publically available -- or likely to be -- about what happened or how. What is clear is that after several NATO airstrikes, 24 Pakistani soldiers were dead and many more injured. NATO and U.S. officials declined to officially speculate about the details of the event -- much less offer an apology -- until a full investigation was complete. The investigation is now complete. The report has been issued, and the Pentagon issued a statement Thursday saying only that “U.S. forces, given what information they had available to them at the time, acted in self defense and with appropriate force after being fired upon.” There was, the statement said, “no intentional effort to target persons or places known to be part of the Pakistani military, or to deliberately provide inaccurate location information to Pakistani officials.” Instead, “inadequate coordination by U.S. and Pakistani military officers… resulted in a misunderstanding about the true location of Pakistani military units.” The statement expressed regret, but neither President Barack Obama nor Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has issued a forthright apology. Unfortunately, neither is likely to do so given the toxic atmosphere in Washington and the looming presidential campaign.

While the report apportions blame on both sides, an astute reader can only conclude that the most heinous mistakes were not made by Pakistan. The worst -- and fatal error -- was the fact that the Americans provided the Pakistan army with incorrect coordinates of the designated targets of AC-130 gunships and attack helicopters. In the early days of the incident, there were several claims and counterclaims about whether the coordinates were given, whether they were correct, and whether or not the Pakistan army cleared the coordinates before the attack. However, the report makes it evident that Pakistan’s clearance of the coordinates or lack thereof is immaterial: The strikes would still have killed those innocent soldiers because the coordinates were simply wrong.

The United States must swiftly act to rectify this mess first by apologizing. Second, the U.S. military must hold those officers to account who are responsible for this tragedy. Not only should appropriate personnel be demoted or ousted per the severity of their negligence, prosecution may also be merited.

The United States claims to promote democracy, accountability, justice, law and order, and human rights. Now is the time to prove it. Pakistanis need to know that their lives matter as much as those of others.