Cameron Munter, the United States ambassador to Pakistan, told a group of White House officials on Monday that a formal video statement from President Barack Obama was important as a preventitive measure in the deteriorating relationship between Washington and Islambad. Munter, speaking via video conference from Islambad, stated that the anger in Pakistan had elevated to fever pitch, and that the U.S. needed to move quickly to defuse the tension.
Defense Department officials balked. While not denying some American responsibility in the Saturday morning attacks, they said that expressions of remorse offered by senior department officials, as well as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton were enough, until a United States military investigation establishing the goings on of the attacks is completed.
Some administration aides also worried that if Obama were to overrule the military decision and actually make an apology to the Pakistani people, such a step could become fodder for his Republican counterparts in the presidential campaign, according to several officials who declined to be named due to unauthorization to speak publicly on the topic.
In the eyes and mind of this one writer, the "almost admition" of the attacks being a NATO fault is enough for the president of the United States to step forward and offer up a formal apology to the people of Pakistan, who are supposed to be an ally to the United States.
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