Making up, a bit

AFTER seven months of bitter haggling, the word “sorry” has at last been uttered in Washington. That allows Pakistan to begin to restore its ties with America, after they were strained—almost to breaking—following the deaths, in November, of 24 Pakistani soldiers manning a post on the Afghan border. American aircraft killed the soldiers in a dreadful, and confusing, night-time “friendly fire” incident. In retaliation, Pakistan stopped the transport across its territory of supplies for NATO forces in landlocked Afghanistan. That added about $100m a month to the cost of the war, as the coalition turned to a much longer resupply route running through Central Asia.

Pakistan had demanded an apology and new terms for its alliance with America. Pakistan's armed forces even suggested that the border deaths had been “deliberate at some level”. But, despite raising the stakes, Pakistan managed to get surprisingly little out of the deal that was announced on July 3rd.