Mullen On Pakistan: Don’t Panic!

So the Pakistani military has been shooting at us all week. It’s not exactly a crisis. But it is a prelude to a crisis: the breakdown of perhaps the most crucial war-on-terror bilateral relationship of all. What does Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, have to say about it?

While things are tense and dangerous in Pakistan, “that doesn’t mean the sky is falling,” the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said today.

Navy Adm. Mike Mullen offered the reassurance during a Pentagon news conference. He said the cross-border fire incident yesterday into Afghanistan does not mean America should over-react.

Why is it that when a high-ranking officer tells you not to freak out about an international incident, it’s the least reassuring thing ever? Mullen reminded reporters that he’s visited the new Pakistani army chief of staff a half-dozen times this year. But doesn’t that just make him look impotent? We’ve opened up a robust military-to-military channel — and still the Pakistanis are shooting at us?