BY ABDUL AZIZ KHAN

The recent Bajaur bombing, killing over 80 people including children, is supposedly another feather in the Pakistan army's cap.

Perhaps that explains the so many medals that the generals have pinned to their shirts. It seems the trooper-turned writer Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf wants to collect the maximum number of such decorations. Local tribal leaders and people have totally rejected the claim made by the Pakistan army that the madrassa (seminary) was being used as a compound by militants, probably those belonging to the Al Qaeda.

But the bodies or what was left of them clearly showed that many of them were children and were just doing a course in religion there for the lack of government schools.

Looking at the burns of the wounded and the extent of damage done to the madrassah, it is evident that very powerful bombs were used in the operation. Most of those killed were unrecognisable and badly mutilated.

Eyewitnesses say they saw US helicopters take part in the operation while the Pakistan army officials deny that and say that the US army had only supplied them with intelligence reports.

But whatever the case may be, it shows the total failure of Pakistan's national and foreign policy.

If it were US warplanes, then this is a blatant violation of the Pakistani airspace, which of course isn't the first time that the US has done.

There have been numerous other occasions when the coalition troops and their drones have crossed the Pak-Afghan border to hit targets on the Pakistani side.

Last year in May, five tribesmen were killed in an attack by US helicopters in the Lawara Mandai area of the North Waziristan agency. However, the Bajaur operation is simply not the first incident of Pakistan army using its tax-payers' money for killing its own people. Today's Bangladesh is the biggest example of the use of might against one's countrymen. There are also past army operations in the country's Balochistan province to keep in mind. But it seems that the army is not willing to learn from its past mistakes. And if it thinks that force can be used everywhere, then it should also keep in mind "more Bangladeshs. "

It had just been weeks that the Pakistan army had struck a peace deal with the militants in Waziristan after three years of operation in which the army lost hundreds of troops, and the wounds from the operation carried out in Balochistan in which Nawab Akbar Bugti was killed were also fresh that it (army) opened yet a new front.

While the Waziristan deal "viewed as a face-saving move for the military" in which the army released hundreds of tribal prisoners in return for assurances that the militants would stop cross-border raids, a spokesman for the militants, calling themselves the "local Taliban," said no such commitment was made.

Just for the records, Pakistan has lost more soldiers in Waziristan than the US has in Afghanistan.

In the recent protests that took place in the country's northern tribal areas against the Bajaur operation thousands of tribesmen vowed to take revenge.

There were even calls for sending suicide bombers against the Pakistan army. While the Pashtoons are well known for their revenge, this could also mean chaos for other parts of the country.Rather than rooting out extremism and terrorism, the Pakistan army has lately been doing just the opposite. With no industries and a high rate of unemployment in the tribal areas, these people have nothing to lose even if they die in the course of avenging their loved ones.

Pakistan has not seen peace even for a day ever since Musharraf jumped into Bush's bandwagon for the "war against terror" (or war of error), of course after being threatened of "being bombed back into stone age."

Rather than acting like a sovereign country, it wouldn't be wrong to call the country a client state. Free nations don't kill their own people at the dictation of outsiders.Ironicall y, while Pakistan has always been a strong ally of the United States since they started diplomatic relations in 1949, no other ally of the United States has faced as many sanctions of the US as Pakistan.

One feels that the Pakistan army in particular and the country called it enough before it is too late.

Someone once told me that the army is like a gun, which needs to be greased even in times of peace to avoid it from getting rusted so that it does not let you down in bad times.

I guess they call blood as grease in the army language. That is Pakistan's "beloved" army. On the one hand, it is using the nation's wealth to "defend" it, one guesses from what? On the other hand, it doesn't have enough means to reach for the rescue of its countrymen in times of need like the earthquake last year. But that was not all, the army even sent a Rs1.045billion( $17.25 million) bill to the government for "relief work" when all the initial work had been done by the very mujahideen and Islamic groups much detested by the US and our president.

As Musharraf loses ground at home, he is now apparently increasingly banking on US support to survive.

However, with the growing perception that the general is losing control, there is increasing scepticism in Washington about his utility in the war on terror. Even with American support, it seems unlikely that Musharraf will be able to navigate his way through the turbulence that lies ahead.