The US and how it gets along–or rather does not–with the Paks:

1) Reading Woodward in Karachi (lengthy, well worth the read)

Is this the nail in the coffin of the U.S.-Pakistan relationship?
BY MOSHARRAF ZAIDI

…As much as supporters of the effort — both in Washington and Islamabad — may go to great pains to explain that this war is for Pakistan’s own good and that the United States is not waging a war on Pakistan, such appeals are likely to fall on deaf ears, and not just among the conspiratorial hypernationalist types.

Even among some of the most stalwart supporters of the United States, suspicion of Washington’s intentions runs deep and wide. In an account of a meeting between President Asif Ali Zardari and U.S. diplomat Zalmay Khalilzad, Woodward describes Zardari’s passionate elaboration of why he is convinced that the TTP — often called the Pakistani Taliban — are being financed and directed by the United States to weaken Pakistan so that Washington can grab Islamabad’s nukes. This kind of ridiculous suspicion of the United States is, of course, as Woodward also notes, a regional disease, with Afghan President Hamid Karzai routinely blaming the United States for supporting the insurgency. But dismissing the ridiculous without understanding its resonance is also dangerous. If this account of Zardari’s meeting with Khalilzad ever made the front page in Pakistan, Zardari, whose popularity has suffered for being a U.S. ally, would get an immediate boost. That’s how deep the suspicion runs…

Is it any surprise that Pakistanis see conflicting messages coming out of Washington? Within this deeply negative and gloomy context, Woodward’s book exposes some of the U.S. government’s contingency plans for Pakistan, including military strikes on as many as 150 suspected terrorist training sites. One conspiracy theory popular in Islamabad, which the book will no doubt feed, is that U.S. special-operations forces will one day come and take Pakistan’s beloved crown jewels — the more than 100 nuclear weapons thecountry bankrupted itself to develop…

One of the most telling accounts in the book is of Husain Haqqani, the Pakistani ambassador to the United States, trying to explain to members of the Obama administration how to engage with Pakistan. After trying a number of analogies, the unflappable Haqqani finally just lays it out plainly, “Give us a little bit of respect. Don’t humiliate us publicly.”

The public humiliation of being the subject of Obama’s war, without being able to publicly acknowledge its myriad dimensions, is a pressure that is crushing Pakistan’s fragile democracy and hurting wider U.S. goals. If one of the objectives of Obama’s war was to stabilize and secure Pakistan, then, by that measure, the war is not doing well at all…

Mosharraf Zaidi has served as an advisor on international aid to Pakistan for the United Nations and European Union and writes a weekly column for Pakistan’s the News. You can find more of his writing at www.mosharrafzaidi.com.

2) America’s image problem in Pakistan

By Kalsoom Lakhani
…
Cyril Almeida, an assistant editor and columnist at Dawn [website here], echoed, “Anti-Americanism is deep and pervasive. To the uninitiated, the Pakistani desire for a U.S. visa/passport/job may seem like tacit approval of what America stands for and aspires to achieve through its foreign policy.” However, he noted, this would be a wrong assumption. “The personal (economic advantage that may be gained) is very different from the political (intense opposition to U.S. foreign policy) [see 3)]. And this contradiction is not specific to the Pakistani condition,” but is reflected elsewhere in the Muslim world.

As the use of drones continue unabated in Pakistan, and tensions are further exacerbated by news of NATO helicopters crossing into Pakistani territory killing Pakistani soldiers late last week, anti-American sentiment will only continue to rise, despite billions of dollars of aid being promised to local civil society, and despite American efforts in the recent flood disaster…

Kalsoom Lakhani is the director of Social Vision, the strategic philanthropy arm of ML Resources in Washington, D.C. She is from Islamabad, Pakistan, and blogs at CHUP, or Changing Up Pakistan.

3) One/one Pakistani-American:

Times Square bomb plotter predicts defeat of U.S.

NEW YORK — Expressing no remorse and predicting the “imminent” defeat of the United States at the hands of Muslim forces, Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday for his attempt to spill blood with a homemade car bomb.

“Brace yourselves, because the war with Muslims has just begun,” Shahzad, 31, warned U.S. District Judge Miriam Cedarbaum in one of several polite but chilling exchanges. “Consider me only a first droplet of the flood that will follow me.”

Shahzad — wearing a white cap, a black prison smock and longer beard and hair than he did at his June guilty plea — also for the first time complained about his post-arrest treatment at the hands of the FBI, and said he was comfortable with his fate because he saw it as the will of Allah.

“If I am given 1,000 lives, I will sacrifice them all for the sake of Allah,” said Shahzad.” … Decree whatever you desire to decree, for you can only decree regarding the life of this world.”..

A naturalized American citizen from Pakistan who was living in Bridgeport, Conn., Shahzad was captured two days after his May 1 bomb attempt. He quickly confessed, telling officials that his plot had been set in motion by the Pakistani Taliban. He said he was defending Muslims and retaliating against American attacks on civilians…

Earlier, from Terry Glavin:

Who’s To Blame For Pakistan’s Agonies? ‘Hindu Zionists and American Think-Tanks.’ [more on those agonies here]

While on another front:

Taliban in high-level talks with Karzai government, sources say

Mark
Ottawa