Pakistan's Nuanced Duplicity
By Liaquat Ali Khan After unsuccessfully cajoling for more than a year Pakistan’s military and civilian leaders to attack the Haqqanis (a fierce subgroup of the Pashtun Taliban), an aggravated Admiral Mike Mullen, days before retiring, accused the Pakistani Inter-service Intelligence (ISI) of sponsoring terrorism against the U.S. Armed Forces. The accusation struck a chord with American exceptionalists who cannot bear the writing on the wall that the U.S., much like prior invaders, has been defeated in Afghanistan. They indict Pakistan as “duplicitous,” “unreliable,” “an enemy in disguise,” etc. Congressional leaders threaten to cut off economic assistance to Pakistan; intelligence experts advocate the escalation of drone attacks; and war hawks propose the introduction of U.S. boots into the Waziristan tribal areas. A U.S. security official describes Pakistanis as “the most difficult people in the world to deal with.” The American perceptions of Pakistan as a duplicitous ally ...