What were they thinking?

Still filling in for my friend Ray who blogs at Remember Jenkin's Ear.

As most people with any information about Pakistan know, relations with the USA are badly strained over the Raymond Davis incident, where a CIA contractor killed a couple of Pakistanis.  Eventually, we ended up paying off the families of the victims, and things may eventually quiet down.

However, relations are still rough.  It's easy to find pictures of protesters burning American flags.  (also here).

So what does some US genius do?  Do we cool it for a while?  No, we pour gasoline on the fire by ordering a drone strike.  This drew a sharp rebuke from Pakistan's army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani (also here) for allegedly killing mainly civilians.

Now, I believe that the strike intended to hit terrorists, not civilians.  Perhaps the Pakistanis are mistaken in their claims that it was a peaceful jirga of tribal elders.  They could be protesting because right now we are very unpopular, and they want to, or need to, "stand up" to the USA.  And. maybe they cynically complain in hopes of landing another large cash payout.

No matter.  Unless the US strike took out Osama Bin Laden, it was a darned stupid idea.  Not worth the risk.  At a time when relations are terrible, we didn't piss off some shadowy ISI types who, IMO, aren't our allies to begin with.  We pissed off the Pakistani army chief.  Bad idea guys.