In fairness, it would be silly on the part of the US to issue an apology without Pakistan issuing a few dozen such apologies for the deaths of US soldiers at the hands of the Taliban that enjoy safe havens south of the Durand Line.

Ref: PEW Research Center Global Attitudes Project June 27th 2012

b) US-Pak relations will ultimately depend on how far Pakistan is willing to help Afghanistan in the peace process and stop the attacks by the Haqqanis and others, especially given that the US draw-down is fast looming and after 10 years of bitter fighting & 1000’s of US & Nato lives lost, they will surely not want to leave the field open for the Taliban to recapture power.

Short of these steps all other talk of US-Pak bonhamie is mere fantasy and ONLY for public consumption.

Bigger picture however was that Pakistan was able to publicly celebrate a moral victory and move on grudgingly and save face before reopening NATO routes – the reality is that the US badly needed the pakistani routes.

Hopefully going ahead they shall sort out their differences with more dignity and ensure the war on terror or on whatever they call it, is carried out quickly and the ACTUAL targets of this are hit and made to run as against the soap opera we saw. US has to use this gesture from Pakistan to try and improve their stock in Pakistan, where it is at an all time low, and actually, now the subcontinent trusts US even lesser than it did earlier – we all see the shabby treatment of Pakistan and the public fun they made of Pakistan as an example of how far US can go to meet it’s own ends.