'Whose side is the US on anyway?'

'Whose side is the US on anyway?'

Over breakfast in Islamabad, one newspaper headline caught my eye: "On whose side is the US anyway?".
 
The report detailed allegations that in the last four weeks, the US army has abandoned checkpoints on the Afghan side of the border with Pakistan's South Waziristan.  We cannot double-check whether or not that information is right, as both US and NATO forces keep a tight lid on operational details.

But that's almost not the point - the point is the frustration of many here with the US and the reality that terrain is the biggest factor in the war against the Taliban.

The border between Afghanistan and Pakistan is huge and porous. I have crossed that border unmolested on more than one occasion, on others there have been only cursory checks. Dotted across the unmarked and largely ungoverned line between the two countries are key smuggling routes, which bring over everything from arms and drugs, to electronic goods and bootleg DVD's.

Securing the Afghan side of the border will be key, because if you can smuggle drugs, then why not Taliban fighters?

And the smuggling routes are used commonly for precisely that purpose. Taliban leaders like Hakimullah Mehsud, Maulvi Nazir ane Gul Bahadur regularly take their men into the Afghan side and mount hit and run raids on US-NATO forces. They then simply melt away and reappear back on the Pakistani side.

Al Jazeera has tried to contact some of the Taliban leaders in South and North Waziristan, but we're told by spokesmen that the leaders are "away". When I press further as to what that means, I'm told that they are fighting in Afghanistan.

Pakistani commentators here want US reassurances that that they are doing what they can to secure the Afghan side of the border. America's top military officer for the region General Petraeus is Islamabad today, and he has already had meetings with the Pakistani army chief. Pakistanis are hoping that their message will get across.

As one military friend of mine put it: "We are losing lives and creating a living hell for Pakistanis in our battle with the Pakistani Taliban. The very least the US could do is put it's own Afghan house in order".