Washington seems to be pursuing the same schizophrenic tack with Pakistan that’s served us so poorly over the past seven years.

Yesterday, Admiral Mike Mullen flew in to Islamabad and reassured top Pakistani military brass and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani that the U.S. will respect Pakistan’s sovereignty.

It’s unclear how sovereignty is being defined, as it was just reported that a U.S. drone missile attack hit targets in the village of Baghar, in the Pakistani tribal region of South Waziristan.

With Pervez Musharraf out of the scene, and with the coalition suffering serious setbacks in Afghanistan the reasons for sending mixed messages to Islamabad are less compelling than ever. If Pakistan’s new civilian government is only half in the fight against domestic terrorists, then the U.S.’s commitment is only at fifty percent as long as we heed the status quo. Pakistani military spokesmen brag about their intention to fire on American troops while Robert Gates tells reporters in Kabul that he’s encouraged by Pakistan’s increasing cooperation. Islamabad is not taking the U.S. seriously.

3700 additional U.S. troops will arrive in Afghanistan early next year. General McKiernan has requested 10,000 more and said he expects to get them. The “with us or against us” approach has taken a hit in the public eye over the past few years, but not as bad a hit as we’re taking in Afghanistan these days. There’s no question these troops are needed. But it’s madness to send more brave Americans over to a war in which we refuse to define the enemy. It’s line-in-the-sand time.