The US, seeking to apply what it perceives as the lessons of the "Sunni awakening" in Iraq, has seconded members of its special forces to train Pakistan’s Frontier Corps in counter-insurgency fighting. The significance of this is that the Frontier Corps is mainly drawn from the Pashtun ethnic group, which straddles the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Perhaps, the thinking goes, these paramilitaries might be more successful than the Pakistani army, which is mainly Punjabi and has suffered heavy losses in the Pashtun tribal areas, in rooting out the militants and "foreign fighters" who have established themselves there.

In a parallel with the "Sunni awakening" in Iraq, Pakistan is also seeking to co-opt and arm tribal militias, and the US is watching the outcome closely. Already there are claims that the policy is bearing fruit in the tribal areas. As for Afghanistan, it has been suggested that the Americans might be seeking a "Pashtun awakening" there too – this is buried, almost as an aside, in a long piece on Barack Obama by "Primary Colors" author and Democratic insider Joe Klein.

But all the time the US is continuing to make attacks on Pakistani soil – the latest missiles killed 20 people, including, it was claimed, a senior Taliban commander. Now, in the first example of the US transferring tactics first used in Afghanistan, it has staged a helicopter-borne raid into Syria. Things might be different under a President Obama, but for the moment the leadership in Damascus might draw the conclusion that it doesn't matter whether you are for or against Washington in the "war on terror" – you will get attacked anyway.