In Pakistan, pro-American sentiment is rare

[Masterchief]

How can american's be pakistan's friends they ended up killing more civilians than millitants, any sane guy would hate them for that.

 

[Abu Zolfiqar]

do you know how many Pakistani fly into the US, or go from US to Pakistan every single day of the year?

are they met by gunfire at the baggage claim or arrival lounge?


what a silly mentality.... anti-Americanism is high, but so is anti-Pakistan sentiment in the US. Though here in DC, i get the occasional ''bin laden'' jokes here and there. Havent met anyone openly hostile yet. I deal with the occasional nincompoop who claims to be an expert on Pakistan, but im good at silencing them.

a lot of people on both sides are so mis-informed. A lot of propaganda on both sides.

 

[Solomon2]

if you're not in certain parts of the tribal areas (where drones strikes have killed civilians), you wont likely be killed for expressing anti-american sentiment

Is it so difficult to write "pro-American" that your fingers simply reject your brain's instructions?

 

[Abu Zolfiqar]

Is it so difficult to write "pro-American" that your fingers simply reject your brain's instructions?

are you implying that im anti-american? That's preposterous, not only am I currently a graduate student in the US -- I'm in Washington DC where all the policy decision making (a lot of which i do, admittedly, disagree with vis-a-vis Pakistan)


what if i were to tell you that i dont enjoy the current downswing in bilateral relations the same way i dont like the damn-fooled choices and ways of going about diplomacy on both sides





p.s.


look out the window Soloman. second to last window, on the left

 

[Solomon2]

are you implying that im anti-american? That's preposterous -

I'm just kidding. You made a typo, that's all.

 

[Abu Zolfiqar]

oh common Suleimannnn!


how would you feel if i told you that i was up till 4 am, driving around Constitution avenue on May 2nd (well techically, the 3rd)

 

[Solomon2]

how would you feel if i told you that i was up till 4 am, driving around Constitution avenue on May 2nd (well techically, the 3rd)

Quite envious.

 

[Abu Zolfiqar]

i was late to work the next day by 3 hours. dont be too envious

 

[Abingdonboy]

Extraordinary- "close" allies whose peoples hate one another!

Why even call it an alliance? A relationship of necessity is all it is- and we all know it. The WOT has done immeasurable damage to this relationship and after 2015 when US pulls out of Afghanistan I can't see it going much further.

 

[lem34]

In Pakistan, pro-American expressions are are - The Washington Post

By Griff Witte, Friday, June 24, 2:52 AM

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Ali Khan Afridi is a wanted man.

Militants come to his house in this frontier city and menace his family. Men claiming to be from Pakistan’s intelligence services call at 2 a.m., and tell him to watch his back.

Afridi accepts all this as the price of his radical views: In a country where the vast majority of people believe the United States is an enemy, Afridi is unabashedly pro-American.

“I believe that America is the only power that can defeat these monsters, these terrorists,” Afridi said. “And that means my life is in permanent danger.”

The United States and Pakistan have been allies for decades, but it has rarely been easy to be pro-American here. Now, following last month’s killing by U.S. Navy SEALs of Osama bin Laden, speaking out on behalf of the United States requires a degree of boldness that verges on a death wish.

While bin Laden was held in low regard by most Pakistanis and there have been few public displays of anger at his passing, the impact on attitudes toward the United States has been profound. Critics of Pakistani ties with Washington are ascendant on the streets, in the media and, crucially, at Pakistan’s military headquarters in Rawalpindi. Backers of the relationship, the few who remain, have been cowed into silence or are reconsidering their stands.

“The U.S. doesn’t realize it, but the damage done is huge. This is a deep hurt that is not going to go away,” said Riaz Khokar, a former Pakistani ambassador to the United States who now advocates a dramatic downgrading of the relationship. “We have placed all our eggs in the U.S. basket. And the eggs turned out to be rotten.”

What Khokar and others object to is not that the United States killed bin Laden. It’s the fact that after a decade of partnership in battling extremists, the Obama administration decided to carry out the raid in the northern city of Abbottabad without informing Pakistan.

U.S. officials have said they were concerned about tipping bin Laden off and did not want to risk confiding in Pakistani security services that have not always proved trustworthy. Since May 2, U.S. policymakers have openly wondered whether elements of the Pakistani military or intelligence services knew about bin Laden’s presence.

Such statements have deepened the mistrust here, and the sense of betrayal.

“In this part of the world, public humiliation is a very serious matter. And the U.S. has humiliated the armed forces of Pakistan,” said Khokar, who has met recently with Pakistan’s powerful top general, Ashfaq Kayani.

Perhaps no other Pakistani backer of the American alliance has come under more scrutiny, or pressure, than Kayani. The army chief had been tightly aligned with the United States, and had forged a particularly strong relationship with Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff.

But after May 2, Kayani “almost went into a state of shock. He could never imagine in his wildest dreams that after all the coordination with Mike, this would be the outcome,” according to retired Maj. Gen. Mahmud Ali Durrani, a former ambassador to the United States who is considered close to Kayani.

Kayani has been frequently critical of the United States. He is facing pressure from his corps commanders to go beyond rhetoric and take a far tougher policy line, including forcing an end to the U.S. campaign of drone strikes in Pakistan’s tribal belt.

Despite growing anti-Americanism within the public in recent years, the army’s top leadership had long been a bastion of belief that the U.S. alliance was too important to risk losing. But that has changed.

“The army is very, very sensitive to public opinion,” Durrani said. “Right now there’s a rethinking because there’s been a failure in the old strategy of so-called cooperation with the U.S. Anyone in their position would rethink.”

‘Verbally abusing America’

On Pakistani television screens, the rethinking plays out nightly. The airwaves are filled with prime-time anchors who attack the United States, and lately go after even the Pakistani generals who support the alliance. “If you are a journalist and you want high ratings, start verbally abusing America,” said Saleem Safi, host of a popular show on the privately run Geo network. “If you abuse the Taliban, al-Qaeda or the Pakistani establishment, you face threats to your life — people say you are a non-Muslim. If you are talking against America, you become a hero.”

Advocates of downgrading the U.S. relationship point to the estimated 35,000 Pakistanis who have been killed in extremist violence since Pakistan partnered with the United States following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The billions of dollars in aid supplied by Washington, they say, hardly compensate for the economic devastation wrought by a war with militants that has never been accepted as Pakistan’s own.

In Peshawar, the teeming capital of Pakistan’s northwest that has suffered a disproportionate share of attacks, a massive billboard memorializes a police official assassinated by the Taliban last year. Streets are named after other soldiers and officers who have fallen. But by and large, “people have not owned this war. They say it is the war of the U.S. that has been imposed on us,” said Shaheed Soherwordi, an international relations professor at Peshawar University.

Soherwordi spoke from a desk in the Lincoln Corner, a section of the university library co-sponsored by the U.S. government that gives Pakistanis a place to read American books and magazines — everything from thick biographies of presidents to Entertainment Weekly.

It is one of the few places in the city that is openly associated with the United States. Another, the American consulate, is considered such a prime target for attack that Soherwordi recently pulled his daughter from a school that he felt was situated too close to the fortress-like compound.

“Every thing and every person associated with the U.S. is a target,” Soherwordi said.

That includes Afridi, who leads a consortium of non-governmental groups operating in the neighboring tribal areas.

Afridi, 36 and clean-shaven, insists he does not have a death wish, but is well aware of the risks of speaking out so strongly in favor of the United States. In recent days, a known militant visited the Afridi home, and told Afridi to stay quiet.

Afridi said he has no intention of doing so. The real threat to his native tribal lands is not the United States, he said, but the Arab, Chechen and Uzbek extremists who have moved in and taken over. He believes others agree with him, but are too afraid to say so.

“There are millions like me,” Afridi said. “But they are terrified. And they are silent.”

The guy must be a first class idiot. Lets face it guys he says he is well aware of the risks but then states that he does not have a death wish. This is contradictory. Why and or what has this guy done to be singled out ie 1 in a population of 180 million to be reportedly. Pure unadaltered american propaganda. FCUK AMERICA!

Then he says there millions like me but are afraid and terrified. doesnt make sence the guy seems to be a retard

 

[Solomon2]

The guy must be a first class idiot. Lets face it guys he says he is well aware of the risks but then states that he does not have a death wish. This is contradictory. Why and or what has this guy done to be singled out ie 1 in a population of 180 million to be reportedly...Then he says there millions like me but are afraid and terrified. doesnt make sence the guy seems to be a retard

It's called civic courage. Don't you think Pakistan would be a happier place if more of its citizens were like him?

 

[lem34]

It's called civic courage. Don't you think Pakistan would be a happier place if more of its citizens were like him?

What do americans know about courage. You and your nation have become soft cowards. You cant even defeat a bunch of guys in pyjamas cos you like drones and air power. get onto the ground like you used to. But i suppose vietnam left you psychologically scared. Bankrupt nation I await your imminent collapse as a bankrupt morally and finacially bankrupt basket case.

 

[Solomon2]

What do americans know about courage. You and your nation have become soft cowards. You cant even defeat a bunch of guys in pyjamas cos you like drones and air power.

We know that there is more to courage than that displayed on the battlefield. Civic courage is the willingness to challenge your own leaders and community to do what is right for society even though you are in an inferior position of power.

I can tell that the very idea scares the pants off you, otherwise you wouldn't try to change the subject. That's O.K. I'm sure the majority of your countrymen share your sentiment.

 

[Chow chow]

How does pakistan's anti Amirican sentiments affect USA?? USA have support of pakistani leaders which is what important and there are many sane pakistanis aswell who are pro-America, its just that they are afraid to come out..

 

[Juice]

This may be hard for some members to swallow...but for the averge American Pakistan matters as much as Albania...none. It makes the news because of the war on terror...but most class it with the Congo and other un-important third-world hell-holes.