...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis....
shipments from Afghanistan via Pakistain are due to resume after the end of anti-drone protests, officials said, as US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel headed to Islamabad for talks on Monday.
Hagel, who has been in Afghanistan since Saturday, will meet with Prime Minister
Nawaz Sharif... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf...
in the first visit by a Pentagon chief to Pakistain for nearly four years.
Ties between Washington and Islamabad have been deeply troubled over US drone strikes targeting suspected faceless myrmidons in Pakistain's tribal belt, while American officials have long accused Islamabad of allowing Afghan Taliban sanctuaries inside its borders.
In recent weeks, activists opposed to the drones forcibly searched trucks in northwest Pakistain in a campaign to disrupt NATO supply routes to and from Afghanistan.
But a US defence official told news hounds in Kabul that the suspension of shipments via Pakistain had been lifted because the protests had stopped, allowing NATO trucks to move safely through the Torkham gate pass.