Ordinary Pakistanis on the street are getting disillusioned with the US. They had hoped that US being a democracy would understand their clamour for freedom and normal democratic politics in their country and push Musharraf to let go of power or at least part of it. But they fail to understand that foreign policy runs on national interest and not on popular will.
Whatever further mess Musharraf creates in Pakistan, US will be willing to disregard for the simple reason, as the New York Times recently pointed out, that the US is out of options on Pakistan. If it dares to force Musharraf to relinquish power it will antagonize the Pakistani army. And nothing happens or moves in Pakistan without the army. More importantly how does the US fight the Al Qaeda and Taliban in Pakistan’s frontier tribal areas without the country’s military?
So Pakistanis are hoping against hope that Negroponte will rap the wily general on the knuckles and make him lift the emergency and restore democratic politics in the country. This is unlikely; all the US envoy will do is make a lot of noise in front of the media.
Ordinary Pakistanis have a love-hate attitude towards the US. They love US icons like Tom Cruise and Hollywood movies. They prefer to [those who can afford it] send their children to America for education and those educated there flaunt their association with US universities. But they strongly resent the fact that the US calls the shots in their country’s politics and fortunes. At the same time, schizophrenically they are happy of the US influence. They know the only way to dislodge Musharraf and his disgusting martial law is US pressure.
Of course the religious minded Pakistanis, who have been influenced by the Islamists, feel the US war on terror is actually war on Islam and they hate it for that.
