WASHINGTON - A noted South Asia defence analyst who spent six years in Pakistan as Australia's military attache has condemned as "unpardonable" Nato's attack on border posts in Mohmand in which 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed. "The US assault is unpardonable," wrote Cloughley in CounterPunch, a bi-weekly American newsletter. "It was one of the only too frequent Cowboy Yippee Shoots, as we used to call them in Vietnam when I served there in the Australian army. Some things dont change," said Cloughley, who contributes regularly to Jane's weekly said. Cloughley, who now lives in France, said he was in Mohmand three weeks ago, visiting 77 Brigade, "whose officers and soldiers were slaughtered by US aircraft, and I know exactly where Pakistans border posts are located. And so do American forces, because they have been informed of the precise coordinates of all them." "Nobody can deny that the posts are well inside Pakistan," he wrote. "Those killed in the US attack on Pakistan included Captain Usman, whose six-month-old daughter will never see him again, and Major Mujahid who was to be married shortly. Well done, you gallant warriors of the skies. May you never sleep contented." After giving various versions of the incident, Cloughley, who believes there is no military solution to the conflict in Afghanistan, commented, "The 'sacrifices that America is making' in Afghanistan, in what is ludicrously called 'Operation Enduring Freedom, are entirely self-inflicted. But Pakistans sacrifices are inflicted by America, which is losing yet another war and again blames another country for its failure. Just like it did in the disasters in Vietnam and Somalia and Iraq. "In the past 50 years, what nation has trusted America and come out of the deal with dignity, honour and prosperity? Pakistan is far from a perfect country. Its government is corrupt and appallingly inefficient. But it could do without Washingtons imperial insolence. At the moment Islamabad is desperate to find some means of registering the countrys contempt and loathing for the United States, and there are very few options available to it. But it could reflect on what Washingtons retaliation would have been if Pakistani aircraft had gone on a yippee shoot and killed 24 American soldiers inside Afghanistan."