Pakistani troops involved in skirmish with US troops

[Sarmatian]

And if "define conservative in Jesus' sense" we've practically solved the problem, right? What the heck Jesus has got to do with US crossing border into Pakistan?

You guys are thinking too much about morality when you should be thinking about reality. It doesn't matter much if incursion is morally justified if the goal is catching terrorists - what matter is what Pakistanis are going to do.

They're not going to be happy about it and at one point they may decide to test those weapons on their maker. And this is not Iraq or Afghanistan, this is a country that has nuclear weapons, 800,000 sq km territory, 200 million people living in it and 7th largest army in the world. Care should be taken when dealing with such a nation, especially considering that militancy is high after what's been happening in the recent past. US troops rolling across the border would make perfect target to those elements within the country that are looking for one.

Better to play whack-a-mole with a few more terrorists than to try to take head on Pakistani army. Intensify border patrols and use carrot and stick system to get Pakistan to close those camps. It takes time but it is safest and offers the only sustainable solution. Has anyone thought what would happen if let's say US troops get in, destroy all terrorist camps and get out? No? New ones would be made.

So the strategy: get in, destroy, get out has two possible outcomes:

Outcome 1: Pakistanis don't react, in which case camps are reopened very soon after US soldiers leave - it doesn't change anything.
Outcome 2: Pakistan reacts and there is war and many more US soldiers die. And even if America manages to acquire control of Pakistan you get Iraq and Afghanistan times 100 and many more US soldiers die.

To sum up - incursions into Pakistan won't solve anything, won't reduce the risks of US soldiers getting killed (in the best of the best case it might, but only for a short time) and it may lead US army which is already very stretched out into bigger conflicts with the 7th largest military in the world. What those incursions can do, and likely will, is piss of Pakistan, which is in very delicate situation and should be treated very carefully...