According to the Washington Post, there are several former United States special forces soldiers operating as mercenaries inside of Pakistan in the hunt for Bin Laden.

Thousands of U.S. troops are openly fighting in Afghanistan along the Pakistan border. The stated U.S. policy, however, is that no American troops are inside Pakistan pursuing bin Laden’s al Qaeda terrorists or advising local troops.

The reality is there are “a load of contracts” with U.S. agencies attracting veterans of Special Forces and other elite units to Pakistan, one source told The Washington Times.

The official ban is in deference to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, whose solid alliance with the United States in the war on terror stops short of allowing American ground troops in his country.

- Washington Post

This is an interesting “bending” of the rules by Musharraf to not only seek support in raiding camps in Waziristan, the “lawless” area in Western Pakistan, but to keep support for the efforts to eliminate insurgency in the eyes of the people of Pakistan. People in Pakistan vary in their support for Pakistan’s support of the U.S. war on terror and knowing that active U.S. forces were inside of Pakistan would crush the support that Musharraf has. I do not doubt that there are even current special force soldiers in Pakistan raiding the tribal villages in their search for Al Qaeda. In fact is has often been rumored that U.S. forces have entered Pakistan from Afghanistan in search for remnants of the Taliban regime as well as Al Qaeda. This information will however never be admitted as it would cause an uproar inside the homeland of one of our major allies in the war on terror.

In the early days of President Bush’s term, Dan Gallington, then a senior adviser to Mr. Rumsfeld, received a courtesy call from a former top Pakistani defense official who told him that the Taliban was sure to finally defeat the Northern Alliance and conquer all of Afghanistan. More alarmingly, this person predicted that his country also would fall to Islamic militants — making it the first theocracy to own the world’s most powerful weapon.

Three years later, Pakistan is the setting for the third hot war in the global war on terrorism, joining Afghanistan and Iraq as places where the military hunts and battles al Qaeda and other terrorists.

Bush administration officials say, in an odd twist, bin Laden’s September 11 attacks might have saved Pakistan. Gen. Musharraf, who took power in a 1999 coup, saw his hold threatened by Islamic militants who were infiltrating more organs of government, especially the powerful intelligence service.

- Washington Times

The relationship between Pakistan and the Taliban who controlled Afghanistan has never been in question. Pakistan openly supported the Taliban prior to 9/11 when Bush made the bold announcement to the world that “you are either with us or against us.” Musharraf chose to ally with the United states allowing special forces to mount attacks and provided runways for predator drones inside of Pakistan for the invasion of Afghanistan.

Perhaps I am being naive, but I am very optimistic about the relationship between the United States and Pakistan. Sure, there is work to be done to curb terrorist activity and radical islam inside of Pakistan, however this is a drastic change that Musharraf has undertaken. It is a change that cannot happen in only three years. It will take many years, perhaps decades, to fully transform a country that once promoted radical islam to one that does not. Musharraf has taken huge steps in this by closing down madrassas and opening up public schools under the funding of the United States. This is a policy of the Bush Administration that should get more coverage; that is to say there was ever any coverage of United States funding.

It is believed that Bin Laden and several key Al Qaeda leaders are located on the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan and it is crucial that this alliance between the United States and Pakistan continues to root out Al Qaeda. Having former U.S. special forces operating inside and with Pakistani forces will not only strengthen the search, but also allow for important interaction between two nations who were once at opposite ends of the ideological spectrum.