Another drone/missile ttack on Pakistan

It certainly does sound like the US is hitting Taleban targets across the border in Pakistan's tribal regions, but these attacks are becoming increasingly frequent.

Missiles fired by U.S. drones killed 16 people, including Pakistani and Afghan Taliban fighters, on Monday in a strike targeting a religious school founded by an old friend of Osama bin Laden, intelligence officials and Pakistani villagers said.

"There were two drones and they fired three missiles," said a resident of Dandi Darpakheil.....

(The NYTimes also has an interesting version.)

Weird question: Would these attacks be politically different if the missiles were fired from manned aircraft that involved repeated US penetration into Pakistani airspace? Does using drones make the attacks "softer" in Pakistan?

Also, as a followup from the Pakistanis shutting down the US supply route into Afghanistan,

Rehman Malik, the top Interior Ministry official, said on Monday the road was unblocked after a few hours, and that it had only been shut for security reasons, contrary to earlier comments by the defense minister that it was a response to the violations.

So, does that mean the shutdown was a top level government action that they quickly backed off when the US squealed, or that it was a lower level action that that got reversed?