Pakistan and the US

Council for Foreign Relations writes about Pakistani Media and anti-Americanism:

“U.S.-Pakistan ties deteriorated significantly in the past year, and the anti-American rhetoric in Pakistani media (NYT), especially television, reached a crescendo. Najam Sethi, an award-winning Pakistani journalist and editor-in-chief of Geo News and the English political weekly Friday Times, says U.S. counterterrorism policies in Pakistan have caused this acrimony. The two countries, he says, have failed to develop a strategic relationship because of each side’s refusal to consider the other’s national security interests in Afghanistan.”

Najam Sethi’s interview for the CFR:

It’s the egg and the chicken: Pakistan has been playing this game long before US drone attacks. If anything America is trapped between giving money to Pakistan to retain lines of communication open, or stop throwing money at them and worsen the situation still. Pakistan has been playing this game for a long time and doesn’t intend to stop. They are very good at shrieking every time it suits them, to extract more money and concessions. With friends like these, who needs enemies?

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