ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—Once again the cacophony of demands from the US and its allies on Pakistan has reached a crescendo.

The US is getting increasingly frustrated at its glaring failure in Afghanistan. Undoubtedly, the shadow of Vietnam must be looming larger over Washington – with demands for more troops from the military command on the ground in Afghanistan accompanied by a growing weariness with the war inside the US itself; and a confusion in the minds of the Obama Administration as to what needs to be done to turn the tide and bring “the boys” home victorious.

The ignominy of Vietnam is still writ large on the US psyche as is that last hasty departure of imperialism from that country – atop the rooftop of the US embassy in Saigon. As the questions grow within the US about Afghanistan and Obama’s confusion gets mired in a numbers game of how many soldiers to add to a force that cannot possibly win; an easy target for all that has gone wrong for the US in Kabul is Pakistan of course.

Never mind that the US itself blundered by allowing bin Laden to escape from Tora Bora – if that is indeed what happened; never mind that Pakistan has destroyed its own polity with thousands displaced and countless innocent citizens killed before drone attacks, suicide attacks and other forms of terrorism, for this US war; and never mind that the Pakistan Army has moved its forces from the eastern front, despite an increasingly belligerent India, to fight its own people in FATA. More >