In a daring step to protect its frontiers, Iran has shot down two US drones that were sent on a spying mission over its territory. Thus, it has made it pretty clear that no matter what the consequences, it will not brook violation of its sovereignty. To counter American aggressive designs in the region, Iran has, of late, been gearing up for an untoward eventuality and has upgraded its air defence system coming up with a homemade drone named Karrar. It is a pity that Pakistan which has relatively more advanced technology has never had the courage to bring down the intruding drones. Even a greater shame is that the US is taking such outrageous liberties with a country that is a nuclear power with a military that has to its credit the demise of the former superpower of USSR. Though there is no dearth of officers in the air force who make no bones about the fact that shooting down the drones is only a childs play for them, the problem lies with the PPP-led federal government, which has secretly given the US carte blanche to bomb the tribal areas. That the voice of such gallant officers is being disregarded shows the limit to which the government has gone to curry favour with the US. The example of Iran, moreover, should be taken as an acid test of how the US would react in a worst case scenario. It has now transpired that the US can do nothing in response to a country like Iran or Pakistan for that matter destroying its drones. The US could boast of having the armed forces equipped with cutting edge technology and with a military budget that exceeds that of the entire world, yet against bold resistance their impact is minimal. Its army has suffered the humiliation of helplessness at the hands of Taliban who do not even have enough sinews of war. In any case, serious retaliation against practical steps of opposition should not be expected from the Pentagon. Therefore, there is no reason why we should not start to defend our borders against these cowardly acts of aggression. Granted, there are fears that in return the US largesse would be blocked, but what should be most important for Islamabad is to protect the tribal population from the onslaught of drones. Also, there is a strong co-relation between the start of the drone attacks in 2006 and the ensuing retaliatory terrorist attacks in the country, which gives a clear indication of how seriously the backlash has hit us. It is high time that the death and destruction of this gruesome chapter of our governments unholy alliance with the US was brought to an end.