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Building Capacity Not Resentment in Pakistan
Over the past few months an extraordinarily worrisome pattern in U.S.-Pakistan relations has emerged: one in which the Taliban make advances, senior U.S. officials raise the alarm and demand action from Pakistan, subsequent action is taken and U.S. officials offer faint praise and maintain that Pakistan is still not doing enough.
By reinforcing the appearance of a causal relationship between U.S. demands and Pakistani action, this very public approach heavily undermines U.S. national security by cementing the perception among Pakistanis that this is not in fact their war but one in which Pakistan is being coerced into fighting through U.S. threats and economic manipulation.