The Pakistanis Hate Us Now More Than Ever

Check out the latest episode of the Jake Stern Show.

The Washington Post at the end of this article reinforces what I've been saying on my radio show for years. According to the latest Pew survey, the Pakistanis hate us, they view us as the enemy, and given a choice between an alliance with us and one with the Taliban, they'd choose the latter in a heartbeat.

The Pakistani court and military have waged an all-out assault on the civilian government, and on anyone who assists the U.S. Capture or kill Al-Qaeda leaders. They use pretexts like outdated corruption charges and other criminal allegations to blackmail politicians into alienating the U.S. Virtually all the turmoil between the High Court and the Prime Minister and President centers around one issue—treat anyone who helps the U.S. As an enemy of the state.

Well, the Pakistani citizens overwhelmingly view us as the evil ones, and they detest drone attacks, which is ironic because without drones we'd resort to far less efficient tactics and kill many more innocent civilians. And they even say they don't want the tens of billions of dollars in glorified bribe money we continuously give them, which incidentally is fine with me. What an ungrateful bunch.

The most astonishing part is the survey didn't include the tribal areas near the Afghan border-by far the most radical parts of Taliban country. As you may imagine, this was due to security concerns. That means the survey only covered the moderates, and still staggering 74% view us as the enemy. The real hard-liners couldn't even participate. It's high time we confront the Pakistanis and put a stop to their treating us as a doormat.

Here's an excerpt:

The public view of government leaders here remains exceedingly negative; Zardari was rated unfavorably by 85 percent of Paki­stanis polled in a Pew Global Attitudes survey whose results were released Wednesday, and only 34 percent approved of Gilani.

And not surprisingly, after a year of contentious dealings with the United States, about 74 percent of the respondents said they “consider the U.S. an enemy,” Pew said, up five points from last year’s survey. The public, which overwhelmingly opposes CIA drone strikes inside Pakistan, also offers dwindling support for joint efforts with the United States against Islamist extremists.

The military continues to rank as the nation’s highest-regarded national institution, with 77 percent 

saying it has “a good influence on the country,” the report said.