Dawn.com: by Waris Husain.
An obstacle that seems to define US-Pakistan relations is the lack of a common enemy recognised by both parties. There is a mutual threat within the military ranks of both nations in the form of infiltrators, using their military training to assist extremist groups. Pakistan’s Army has maintained a double-policy of fostering and punishing extremists within its ranks while the American military is witnessing a rise of white extremists in its midst that have planned and executed terrorist attacks against American citizens.
Though the US officials have critiqued the Pakistani Army for failing to rout out extremist officers, they run the same risk, if they fail to pay closer attention to the rising amount of American military personnel joining racist militias. This might be an opportunity to stabilise the US-Pakistan relationship, if the two countries emphasise their common internal threats, rather than focusing on their disagreement over external enemies.
When I was in Baghdad a Civilian Employee at the US Embassy told me that ‘every new contingent of the US military is more racist than the previous one’. He blamed the ‘Radio Talk Shows’ in the US for increased Islamophobia.