Washington view

I am visiting Washington DC for a week and no I am not with the presidential entourage as I have been asked this question by nearly everyone I met here. Being a working journalist, a freelance columnist with three columns a week and a casual appearance in TV talk shows are not the only criteria for being selected for accompanying the president or the prime minister on their state visits abroad. You must have the nuisance value of being a volatile critic or an ardent fan of either or both the president and the prime minister. I am but a humble defence and (neutral) political analyst. But then I am digressing.

Having been exposed to violent bouts of terrorist attacks in Pakistan, threats of hot pursuit of terrorists, disclosure of authorisation by President Bush for US forces to attack targets within Pakistan, the incessant violation of Pakistani airspace by US Predator UAVs and occasional attacks by their Hellfire missiles and the havoc and uproar they have been creating in the tribal area and the Pakistani media, led me to believe that Pakistan must be the topic of hot debate in the US media.