THE RECENT spate of deadly terrorist attacks in Pakistan over the past two weeks has created a rare opportunity for the United States to change the narrative Pakistanis have largely accepted of American neocolonialist meddling in their affairs.
In that narrative, America has no concern for Pakistan’s well-being and no understanding of Pakistan’s rivalry with India, and only seeks cooperation with Pakistan when it suits US needs. This version of US-Pakistani relations is filled with grievances. It holds that Washington used Pakistan to help support Afghan “freedom fighters’’ against the Soviet occupation of that country from 1979 to 1989, and then lost interest after the Red Army’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, leaving Pakistan to cope with millions of Afghan refugees and the extremist spillover from that conflict.
That narrative feeds resentment that after Sept. 11, 2001, Pakistan was told it must choose either to be with America or against it in the US war on terrorism. And today, when Pakistani intelligence is helping locate Al Qaeda leaders for American drones to fire their missiles at, that narrative says that the Americans are violating Pakistani sovereignty and stirring up Islamist radicals inside Pakistan.
But this month’s shocking suicide bombings and commando operations against Pakistani police and military targets make it plain that Pakistan’s interest in combating Al Qaeda, the local Taliban, and other extremist groups is, if anything, more acute than America’s. The extremists are threatening the stability of the Pakistani state.
To shed the old narrative, President Obama ought to address the Pakistani public directly, expressing Americans’ sympathy and solidarity with Pakistanis but avoiding the hectoring tone to which some Pakistanis objected in a recently passed aid bill of $7.5 billion over five years. Practically, Obama could help change Pakistani perceptions of US intentions if he took advantage of America’s improving relations with India to push for the resolution of longstanding Indian-Pakistani conflicts. It would be a disaster for India if Pakistan were taken over by Islamist extremists.
The terrorists themselves are the most potent force for changing the old narrative. Their attacks make the case that America and Pakistan are in the same boat together, and need to overcome their distrust of each other.
America’s ultimate nightmare would be a takeover of nuclear-armed Pakistan by Al Qaeda and its allies. And that would be no less of a nightmare for Pakistanis. This common danger must be at the core of the new narrative both countries adopt.
