Bruce O. Riedel, a former high-ranking CIA and Pentagon official who helped shape U.S. policy in South Asia in previous administrations, says the United States faces a very frustrating situation in Pakistan, and the recent U.S. cross-border attacks from Afghanistan into Pakistan are risky given the anti-Americanism in Pakistan. He says that "in that kind of charged political atmosphere, these kinds of operations can easily incite even further anti-Americanism." His advice for whoever is the next president is "to work with the civilian government, show them we want democracy in Pakistan," and to "increase our assistance to Pakistan, especially in economic areas." He also urges putting pressure on Afghanistan to accept the border with Pakistan imposed in 1893 by the British and get the Indians to work toward a Kashmir solution acceptable to all sides.
Well let me say, first of all, it's very different going into the sovereign territory of a nuclear weapons state. We have heard from the Pakistani army chief Ashfaq Pervez Kiyani that the Pakistani army doesn't approve and will resist. Now some of that may be playacting, part of a very complicated Pakistani internal game that's going on. But my experience with the Pakistani military is that they will jealously try to guard their nation's sovereignty and their own perceived prestige
Pakistanis in general, but the Pakistani army in particular, does not have a lot of confidence in the United States. They feel that the United States has let them down, over and over again, over the last fifty years. We don't have a lot of friends in Pakistan. What we have is a lot of people that think the Americans are not reliable. There's been a poll in Pakistan in last several days that say the majority of Pakistanis think the violence in their country is the result of the United States.
Zardari this summer tried to put the Pakistani Intelligence Service, ISI, under his control, and the army slapped him down right away and told him, "no way.
Pakistan is an extremely dangerous country. We need to tread carefully. We need to get the Pakistanis to see this as their war.
http://www.cfr.org/publication/17191/riedel.html
