What Do Pakistanis Think About America?

Pakistan is the U.S. key ally in the struggle to route Afghanistan-based Taliban and al-Qaeda extremists. As U.S. special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke puts it, “there’s a direct correlation between Afghanistan, Pakistan and our [U.S.] homeland security” (Gaouette). During the last official visit to Pakistan this July, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton acknowledged the “legacy of suspicion” among Pakistanis towards the United States and reinforced the U.S. commitment “for the long haul” to work with Pakistanis (Gaouette).

Indeed, in order to assure a fruitful partnership with Pakistan, the United States needs not only to provide it with monetary and humanitarian help, but most importantly win the hearts and minds of the Pakistanis themselves. All this time, the Obama administration has been focused on negotiations with Pakistani state officials, forgetting about the general population. As the result, only “11 percent of Pakistanis see the U.S. as a partner and just 8 percent have confidence that President Barack Obama will make good decisions on global affairs,” according to a recent Pew survey done in Pakistan (Gaouette).

CNN reporter Kaj Larsen also gathered some interesting data on Pakistanis' views of Americans and America, while he was crisscrossing Pakistan covering the aftermath of the devastating earthquake. In Multan, a city in the Punjab Province, Larsen interviewed two cooks who both hold a very positive view about Americans. One of them said that America was not Pakistan’s enemy, because Americans were helping Pakistani people. Stopping for some chai tea, Larsen got to interview a group of people who all agreed that America was a good country. A cashier on a petrol station thought the United States was helping people who were affected by the floods. However, the man standing next to him thought America was attacking one Muslim country after another and he was concerned that the U.S. will attack Pakistan next. The manager of the guest house where Larsen was staying with his team said that Pakistanis give maximum regard to America in Pakistan, but Pakistanis were not treated well in the U.S. A female doctor, speaking English, believed that in times of disaster the U.S. gives Pakistan lots of food. At the same time it is “throwing bombs” on Pakistan. She said that if the United States wanted to win the hearts of the people, then it needs “to live in the hearts of the people.”

So, a well-educated doctor is concerned about U.S. policies and a chai tea-maker holds a positive view about America. These mixed and controversial views should be a danger signal for the Obama administration. The overall success of the U.S. struggle to route Taliban and al-Qaeda depends on how well the U.S. will do in Pakistan. And this in its turn depends on the relationship the U.S. will cultivate with the Pakistani population. In other words, vox populi will decide!



Works cited

Gaouette, Nicole. “Most Pakistanis View U.S. as Enemy, Want War Over, Survey Finds.” Bloomberg Businessweek. July 19, 2010. Sept. 16, 2010 .

“What Do Pakistanis Think of the U.S.” Besternews.com. Sept. 13, 2010 .