Filling in for my Friend Ray a Bit

My friend Ray, who blogs at Remember Jenkin's Ear, is temporarily out of action.  He's posted a lot about the Raymond Davis situation in Pakistan.  Davis is the CIA contractor who "allegedly" shot a couple of armed Pakistanis who approached his car. This understandably created a small crisis in US - Pakistan relations, which seemed to be growing into a large crisis thanks to things like the ISI stating that he was CIA, and intervention by Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani.  Davis was formally charged with murder.

Ray speculated that this incident could lead to an Egypt-like uprising, and pointed out the general "fishiness" of the whole story.

Looks like money will be the fix, averting a crisis in US-Pakistani relations.  For a reported 2.4 million dollars to each victim, (and, I assume, an apology, as least implicitly) Davis has been released. Another article here.

 "In Pakistan's legal system, charges against people accused of murder can be dropped if "blood money" is paid to the family of the victim's relatives.".  

While I'm glad that this may have averted a serious break in US-Pakistani relations, it makes me wonder just how serious the Pakistani protestations really were.  Frankly, this just supports my belief that the Pakistanis are, to some extent, "using" the US, playing us for as much money as they think they can get, especially given the extensive past misuse of much of the aid the US provides.  I almost agree with one of the Islamicist parties,  "The Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami party condemned the release of Mr. Davis and said it would demonstrate."  Unfortunately, as long as we are over-extended in Afghanistan, we need to remain on good terms with Pakistan..