Sneak preview: 2006 Iraq war strategy

Pakistan on Saturday condemned a purported CIA airstrike on a border village that officials said unsuccessfully targeted al-Qaida's second-in-command, and said it was protesting to the U.S. Embassy over the attack that killed at least 17 people.

Thousands of local tribesmen, chanting 'God is Great,' demonstrated against the attack, claiming the victims were local villagers without terrorist links and had never hosted Ayman al-Zawahri.

Two senior Pakistani officials told The Associated Press that the CIA acted on incorrect information in launching the attack early Friday in the northwestern village of Damadola, near the Afghan border.

Citing unidentified American intelligence officials, U.S. news networks reported that CIA-operated Predator drone aircraft carried out the missile strike because al-Zawahri, Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant, was thought to be at a compound in the village or about to arrive.

'Their information was wrong, and our investigations conclude that they acted on a false information,' said a senior Pakistani intelligence official with direct knowledge of Pakistan's investigations into the attack."

Remember Sy Hersch's prediction that as our ground forces buckle under the stress of over-commitment in Iraq, we would (a) shift to aerial bombardment as the tool of choice and (b) thereby become vulnerable to the mistakes and divergent motives of those on the ground who become our spotters?

This story will give you a good sense of how well that is going to work out for us.

Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.