US pressure strains ties with Pakistan, says NYT

NEW YORK - Pakistans counterinsurgency operation in South Waziristan may be welcome in the United States but the push is straining the delicate Washington-Islamabad relations, according to a leading American newspaper.
The administration of US President Barack Obama would like the Pakistani military to root out the Taliban and al-Qaeda militants from these tribal areas, but many Pakistanis blame the United States as the military offensive has left other parts of Pakistan more vulnerable to militant attacks, The New York Times reported Tuesday. There have been a series of deadly terrorist attacks in several cities in recent weeks. The report quoted Pakistan and Western officials saying that US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is scheduled to visit Pakistan this week, will find the nuclear-armed country consumed by doubts about the value of the alliance with the United States and resentful of ever-rising American demands to do more against the militants. There also is concern over the $7.5 billion US civilian aid package which the powerful Pakistani military sees as an attempt to interfere in Pakistans internal affairs. On the South Waziristan offensive, Richard Holbrooke, special US envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, was quoted as saying it needs to been seen whether the Pakistani army is only dispersing the terror groups or destroying them. One Western military attachT told the Times that based on the number of troops fighting in the tribal region it was not clear if the army wants to finish the task.
The army appeared to have no plans to occupy South Waziristan, but rather to cut the militants to size, Tariq Fatemi, a former Pakistan ambassador to the United States, was quoted as saying. With the uncertainty of American plans in Afghanistan, and the strong sentiment in Pakistan that India was up to no good in the restive province of Balochistan and the tribal areas, Fatemi said, the army would not abandon the militant groups that it has relied on to fight as proxies in Afghanistan and in Kashmir against India.
The goal in South Waziristan, Fatemi said, was to eliminate the leadership that had become too big of their boots with the attacks on Pakistans cities. The army would like to find more pliant replacements as leaders, he said.
The militants war against the cities in the past three weeks had produced a wave of fear that shored up support for the army to fight back in South Waziristan, The Times said. But the terror has also amplified complaints that civilian government of President Asif Ali Zardari, is unable to cope with the onslaught, it said. Mr Zardari, whose relations with the Pakistani military appear increasingly strained, has not addressed the nation since the militants unfurled their attacks or since the army launched the offensive in South Waziristan. There is a general perception in the educated class that Pakistan is paying a very heavy price for fighting alongside the United States, Ashfaq Khan, an economist and dean of the business school at the National University of Science and Technology in Islamabad, was quoted as saying.