UPDATED: OBAMA'S FAILED FOREIGN POLICY IN A NUTSHELL: APOLOGIZES TO PAKISTAN EVEN AS OUR TANKERS GET ATTACKED TRANSITING THROUGH PAKISTAN

UPDATED: SCROLL DOWN ---

NYTIMES: U.S. Apologizes as Attacks in Pakistan Continue

Dozens of tanker trucks carrying fuel to Afghanistan for NATO troops were torched near Quetta in western Pakistan on Wednesday, the third major attack on supplies since Pakistan closed a border crossing to Afghanistan a week ago and the first at the only checkpoint that remained open.

The latest sabotage came as American officials for the first time offered an explicit apology to Pakistan over a shooting that led to the closing of the other border crossing, possibly laying the ground work for its reopening.

At least one person was killed in the Quetta torchings after three carloads of gunmen fired at the tankers and then burned them, the police said.

“According to eyewitnesses and initial reports some terrorists came on vehicles a few minutes before morning prayer and started firing and then burned some of the tankers,” said Hamid Shakeel, the deputy inspector general of the Quetta police.

About 40 tanker trucks were at the terminal, and about half were saved from the attack, Inspector Shakeel said.

Firefighters struggled to contain the blaze. Live television showed the fire raging hours after the attack.

“We don’t have foam to put out the fire,” the police official said.

Hours after the attack on the trucks at Quetta, Taliban militants claimed responsibility, according to reports on Pakistani television channels.

In a sign that the government was continuing to distance itself from the attacks, the police chief in Quetta, Malik Muhammad Iqbal said it was not the responsibility of the government to provide security for the convoys. In the past few days, senior police officers have said the safety of the trucks lay with the fleet owners who had signed contracts with NATO.

The standoff between the government and NATO continued on Wednesday with no definitive word from Pakistan about when the border at Torkham in the Khyber region would be reopened.

That crossing was closed last week in protest over NATO helicopter strikes against a mountainous border post at Khurram manned by Pakistani paramilitary soldiers.

But in a sign of possible movement, NATO’s International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan said a joint assessment with Pakistan showed that NATO helicopter crews had shot at Pakistani border forces in the Sept. 30 strikes, thinking that they were responding to enemy fire.

The statement was notable in that Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top commander, said, “We deeply regret this tragic loss of life and will continue to work with the Pakistan military and government to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”

An even more explicit apology was offered by the United States ambassador to Pakistan, Anne W. Patterson. “We extend our deepest apology to Pakistan and the families of the Frontier scouts who were killed and injured” Ms. Patterson said. “Pakistan’s brave security forces are our allies in a war that threatens both Pakistan and the U.S.”

WE SHOULDN'T APOLOGIZE TO THE DOUBLE-DEALING PAKISTANIS.

THEY DON'T APOLOGIZE TO US FOR OUR LOSS OF LIFE, LIMBS AND TREASURE.

• WE SHOULD BE DEMANDING PAKISTAN GET CONTROL OF THE FATA REGION - AND IF THEY DON'T THEN JUST DECLARE IT A DE FACTO NO-MAN'S LANDS AND A FREE FIRE ZONE.

THE PAKISTANIS ARE TRYING TO HAVE THEIR CAKE AND EAT IT TOO: THEY CLAIM THE FATA REGION IS PART OF THEIR NATION, BUT THEY ALSO ARGUE THAT THEY CAN'T STOP THE TERROR THAT EMANATES WITHIN IT.

• EITHER THE REGION IS PART OF PAKISTAN AND THEY MUST CONTROL IT AND ERADICATE TERRORISTS FROM IT, OR WE USE THE 2001 AUMF TO DEMOLISH IT AND ERADICATE ALL LIFE WITHIN IT - DRONE IT TO KINGDOM COME.

• THERE'S NO GOOD REASON TO SEND OUR BEST SOLDIERS INTO A DANGEROUS REGION CLAIMED BY A DUPLICITOUS AND CORRUPT GOVERNMENT.

• NEITHER FDR OR TRUMAN APOLOGIZED FOR KILLING THE ENEMY OR THE INEVITABLE COLLATERAL DAMAGE THAT OCCURS IN WAR. WAR IS HELL.

WE WON'T WIN IT BY USING HALF-ASSED MILITARY POWER OR APOLOGIZING TO THE ENEMY - OR OUR HALF-ASSED ALLIES.

UPDATE: THE APOLOGY DIDN'T WORK:

Pakistan said Thursday it has not decided when to reopen a key border crossing NATO uses to ship supplies to Afghanistan despite a U.S. apology for a helicopter attack that killed two Pakistani soldiers.

APPEASEMENT NEVER WORKS.