IF any moment during the last year provided a metaphor for the West's involvement in Afghanistan it was the still unexplained Nato air strike on a checkpoint close to the border with Pakistan.
The raid was carried out by Nato warplanes in the middle of the night on November 26 and it killed 24 Pakistani border guards. Not surprisingly, it infuriated Pakistan's prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, who called it a gross infringement of his country's sovereignty and demanded a copper-bottomed explanation.
Please enable cookies in your browser to display the rest of this article.