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msnbc   |  November 26, 2011

Pakistan blaming NATO for soldiers' deaths

Ret. Col. Jack Jacobs joins msnbc to talk about the diplomatic consequences that may arise after dozens of soldiers are killed near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

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This content comes from Closed Captioning that was broadcast along with this program.

>> reporter: again and nato officials are investigating.

>>> good morning, colonel jack.

>> good morning, alex.

>> how likely is it that this attack was not provoked?

>> well, my understanding is that it's possible that the afghan forces were in actual contact with the pakistani forces and in the middle of a fire fight. so this kind of stuff happens from time to time. i've seen it myself and a lot of other people that have been in combat. sometimes we fire on our own forces because we can't identify each other properly. in this case, the terrain is such that it's very difficult to identi identify who's on the other side. if they are shooting at you, the rules of engagement call for you to fire back. they've done it before. they may keep it closed longer. why is that important? we get the large majority of our supplies into afghanistan through pakistan. the longer they close the border, the more difficult it is. and on top of all that, the strained relationships between afghanistan and pakistan, and just yesterday, the day before this incident happened, general john allen of the united states was going to have a big impact .

>> okay.