No cause for alarm over Pak situation, Rice

"Yes," he added, "I am ethnically an Indian, but I am a U.S. citizen and harbour no animosity toward Pakistan or its citizens. After spending so much time studying the place, I've grown rather fond of it. But I worry that many Pakistanis -- and Americans, for that matter -- don't want to hear the bad news,"

But observers say that keeping his track record, Ganguly's deep-seated prejudice against Pakistan always come out of his writings loud and clear.

Ganguly wrote, "We need a stern, serious international effort -- led by the United States -- to put Pakistan back together again, reform its institutions and reorder its priorities. If not, we will face a terrifying prospect: Pakistan's collapse (slow or otherwise) into a full-blown failed state, armed with nuclear weapons, riven by ethnic tensions, suffused with resentment and zealotry, and with roving bands of Taliban sympathizers and bin Ladenists in its midst."

On the other hand, Secretary Rice said on Fox News channel that a democratic Pakistan is better able to confront extremism as she stressed cooperative efforts with the country instead of becoming alarmed about the challenges facing it.