Nicely elaborated.. but is there any need to repeat what has been said a zillion times before?.. People of Pakistan know it, US knows it, the people of United States know it.. but is US going to change its strategy? are they really here to 'help' Pakistan? are they 'ever' been a friend to Pakistan.. a 'real' friend? NO.. so its no use explaining to them anything..
just my two cents...
This is where you have missed something.
Whilst the US government may represent its people, and generally prosecutes the wishes of its people domestically. There still seems to be little say in foreign policy. Moreover, the reflections of that foreign policy generally dont fall back to the American people at large. Whatever news they recieve of the world through the electronic media barred the internet is tailored for them.
As we know of channels such as Fox.. they report what they decide. Not the ground realities.. Only a few media networks in the US send back the real deal. With that, the US public cannot decide accurately whether or not to support a particular policy.
An American tax payer may know that 1% of his earnings end up in an aid camp in KP, but he/she will not know that once it got there, did it get to the people. did the person who receive it experience some change in his life due to that?
More drastically, when the US trooper in Afghanistan throws out an MRE to a kid, only to find out that the same kid blew one of his colleagues from boot camp .. what impression does that give him?
When the USAF engineer that trained an Afghan to service the mi-17 finds out that the said fellow has been stripping machines and selling parts .. how will he feel?.. Heartbroken perhaps?
What about the loadmaster on a C-130 who broke his back carrying bags of USAID flour to flood effected people.. handing it to them then.. seeing them smile for a bit. Only to come back and see the people from that country burning his nation's flag and stomping on it?
What should these people feel about Pakistan or Afghanistan?
They spent ten years here, coming back again and again.. a trillion dollar's perhaps sunk into this endeavor by their government, in a democracy they believe in unlike us. Where they elect a government knowing that it is working for their best interests. To them, its almost as if they were the ones in control and lost everything for nothing.
Ive already given what the common Pakistani feels...
What about the military, forget the head honcho's.. they deal with the bosses on the other side.
Here is the guy who lost his arm to a Taliban attack in waziristan.. spent days in agony. now performs second rate duties.. all because he was sent in to fight enemies of his country. He lost three guys from his unit, guys he danced with, shared the same plate with, talked about his life with.
Only to see on the news people calling his efforts as slave for the Americans.. Religious nutjob's and revered personalities downplaying his friends death, A government that disowns him. Only his unit cmdr supports him.. he goes back to find his local Mullah denouncing his employers position.. he feels disconnected from his religion.. all his training has morale riding on "La-Ilaha Illallah" and "Allah-o Akbar". He dies for his god first.. then his country comes into play. And now he is being portrayed as an enemy of his religion.
He has not been told, nor has he seen his fellow countrymen revere him, they did not hold a ticker tape parade when he came back from Waziristan.. nobody garlanded him when he came back.
What is his opinion in all of this?
Its not the fault of the American people... not entirely.Neither Chogy or Solomon represent their government, or know what it knows, nor share its views.What they are told is what is released to them. I as a Pakistani hold no ill will against them, they follow a system.. and the system is what we deal with, they are happy with the system for reasons best known to them. At least they have a system. To me, they are ignorant of what is going on here.. and the Sec. State of the US can set up a summer home in Pakistan and she still wont be able to see the deal for what it is.
Us a nation, we live on our flaws. We dont even know where to go, you think it was a comment in jest Hillary made about the Pakistani people having to decide as a nation where they want to be??
She was letting you have it raw. Tomorrow dont be surprised if the PPP government returns, with Asif Ali Zardari in his second tenure.
You and I will still go about our lives, still rant on Def.pk.. because inherently we have become druggists to this apathetic condition.