Expanded Attacks on Pakistan

The NYT reports, as its lead article today, that Obama is expanding missile attacks in Pakistan.

Morning Edition also reported on these attacks yesterday, stating that Pakistanis -- or, at least the Pakistan government -- is silently acquiescing to (or even encouraging) the strikes.

86. Since these attacks are not in Afghanistan, do they constitute a separate "war" for US legal purposes? On what authority is Obama ordering them? Is the administration consulting with anyone in Congress?

I guess I should trust that Obama (Gates? Petraeus?) knows what he's doing, but my first instinct is not to like that he's taking a more militaristic approach in his first month in office. What about diplomacy? What about using non-military tactics to win over the Mehsud supporters?

"With two missile strikes over the past week, the Obama administration has expanded the covert war run by the Central Intelligence Agency inside Pakistan, attacking a militant network seeking to topple the Pakistani government. The missile strikes on training camps run by Baitullah Mehsud represent a broadening of the American campaign inside Pakistan, which has been largely carried out by drone aircraft.

… The strikes came after a visit to Islamabad last week by Richard C. Holbrooke, the American envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan."