Pakistanis 'Don't Give a Damn' What Americans Think

"The common people here don't give a damn what Americans think about our government. … The Americans have catapulted India to the lofty position of a fully-fledged strategic partner as part of their new Af-Pak anti-terrorism strategy, consigning both Afghanistan and Pakistan to the role of foot soldiers and cannon fodder. The people here are greatly worked up and deeply incensed at Washington's irrational demands on Pakistan, demands that work to India's obvious immense advantage."

EDITORIAL

May 7, 2009

Pakistan - The Frontier Post - Home Page (English)
A supporter of Jamaat-e-Islami, an Islamist political party suspected of having links to al-Qaeda, protests military operations in the Swat valley, in Peshawar, May 8. Pakistani forces claim to have killed 143 militants in the past 24 hours in the Islamist bastion.

C-SPAN VIDEO: Senate Foreign Relations Chairman John Kerry and Ranking Member Dick Lugar with Afghan President Karzai and Pakistani President Zardari speak to the press about their meeting, May 7, 00:19:48
Hillary Clinton, U.S. Secretary of State, a ministerial-level public functionary, dutifully seated the heads of state of Afghanistan and Pakistan (the latter a nuclear power), Hamid Karzai and Asif Zardari, on either side of her under the glaring lights of a televised press conference, albeit to the utter shame and consternation of their own compatriots. Karzai and Zardari's flunkeys and trumpeters are sure to beat their drums over the event and give a hyperbolically favorable spin to their participation in the Washington dialogue. Pakistan's spin doctors are already out and about claiming that President Zardari is returning home with added confidence - as his Afghan counterpart will be. But that will only soothe his party's rank and file and those sections of the political and intellectual elite that play ball with them. It will not soothe the surging common citizenry that, though it stands largely disenfranchised under the thumb of an oppressive feudal nobility, has a strong sense of self-respect.

This citizenry never takes kindly to the meddling in our internal matters of American lords, nor does it appreciate their categorizing for us the good and bad in our own homes. The citizens of Pakistan reacted with disdain when the top hierarchy of the United States labeled the incumbent Pakistan government as fragile. Pakistanis will not be the least bit swayed now by the about face of Washington's lords. It isn't the business of the Americans or anyone else to rate a Pakistani government. This rating is the sole and exclusive prerogative of this country's people, not of any alien power, even if it is the world's mightiest and tallest. This is how our people feel - and they feel so very intensely. Only this nation's elites celebrate or feel depressed when a word of appreciation a cry of censure emanates from Washington.

The common people here don't give a damn what Americans think about our government. They make their own judgments and go by them. No one here will be amused by Clinton's portrayal of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) on transit and trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan as an historic event. The two neighbors already have a transit and trade agreement. As such, this MoU will be commonly viewed here (and with good reason) as a devious attempt by the Americans to wrench a land route transit facility out of Pakistan without any reciprocal concession from India. The Americans have catapulted India to the lofty position of a fully-fledged strategic partner as part of their new Af-Pak anti-terrorism strategy, consigning both Afghanistan and Pakistan to the role of foot soldiers and cannon fodder. The people here are greatly worked up and deeply incensed at Washington's irrational demands on Pakistan, demands that work to India's obvious immense advantage.

From the beginning, the Obama Administration's constant refrain has been that Pakistan must pull its military from the Indian border and move it to the Afghan frontier to fight al-Qaeda and the Taliban. But no mention has been made of asking India to remove its military, the bulk of whose strike force is deployed against Pakistan from the border to the far interior. The Americans hadn't a word to say against last week's day-long Indian strike corps exercise near the underbelly of Pakistani Punjab. Indeed, with the exception of dollar-funded non-governmental organozations (arguably Pakistan's most flourishing industry at present), this country's citizens were greatly intrigued by Obama's newly anointed CIA boss Leon Panetta making New Delhi his first foreign destination. This couldn't sit well in their minds when they know that the CIA, in league with India's Research and Analysis Wing [RAW], is playing vile tricks with this country's security, stability and integrity, having already worrisomely softened up Balochistan and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, as well as more settled areas.

Posted by WORLDMEETS.US


The common people are no less miffed at President Zardari's line that "My democracy will deliver" on throwing out terrorists. How can a democracy, whether mine or yours, accomplish such a feat, if the wellspring of this terrorism, thriving in Afghanistan under the wings of a CIA-RAW-Mossad-Afghan intelligence "evil axis," isn't packed up? And it's hard to see how his "brother Karzai" could be of any help in addressing this burden when this brother himself has been part of the problem [convicted of corruption]. In any event, Zardari's bards will sing songs of adulation to him. The beans on his Washington dialogue will nonetheless be spilled by the American media, as they so often are. Let's see what they have to say about it.

SEE ALSO ON THIS:
The Frontier Post, Pakistan: 'Pakistan in a Trance, Doing America's Dance'
The Nation, Pakistan: 'No Nuclear Surrender'
The Nation, Pakistan: To Reduce Militancy, the U.S. Must Pressure India
As Safir, Lebanon: Obama and bin Laden Confront 'Day of Reckoning'
Asia Times, Hong Kong: Al-Qaeda Seizes on Taliban's Problem
Asia Times, Hong Kong: Thanks to U.S., Taliban Have a New Target
Asia Times, Hong Kong: Karzai Gets the 'Last Laugh' on White House
The Telegraph, India: Obama 'Deliberately Dramatizes' al-Qaeda Threat for Domestic Political Reasons