All these incidents ought to be condemed. But what differnce does it mak who is in power. President Musharraf only condemmed these attacks and the PPP government will only condem them. It not like they will do more then that.
Popular support in the electorate.
The advantage of an established democracy is that your politicians will not be able to hold up against public opinion when it is this strong for very long.
Just look at what happened to so many of the governments around the world that supported the US invasion of Iraq, and their electorate was no where as close to pissed as ours is.
We may be a nascent democracy, but there is only so much pressure that this government will be able to take before it has to take actions that will be neither in the interest of Pakistan nor Nato.
I would argue that this fact alone would make NATO more careful over how it uses force.
One huge flaw with US policy has been that while it considers controlling events in FATA vital to their success in Afghanistan, winning over the people of FATA and Pakistan has not really played much of a role in their policy in the region. The people of FATA are Pakistanis, yet while you hear stories all over of NATO troops sipping tea and chatting with elders (in Afghanistan) in an attempt to win hearts and minds, what efforts have been expended to do the same in Pakistan?
If FATA and Pakistan are that crucial to victory, then it seems the height of stupidity to not even try and win Pakistanis over - and supplying F-16's does not count.
Its not like there haven't been opportunities - the BIT, negotiations on an FTA etc. All of that has been approached with absolutely no interest by the Bush Adminsitration, and then they expect that by some miracle the distrust and dislike built up over decades will just evaporate and Pakistanis will support US interests and goals.
Even the FATA development bill, such a crucial aspect of introducing progress in FATA, is stuck up in congress. And they have been talking about that for how many years now?
Development in Afghanistan is at a snails pace, and any efforts at helping development in Pakistan is at an even slower pace.
Absolutely abysmal policy for the region.