What a news leak!

President Obama has made another mistake at a vital stage of his re-election campaign when he, before the press conference with the Russian President Medvedev about the negotiations for the proposed missile defense system that US wants to install in Europe, told his partner – in private as he thought – that after his re-election he would be more flexible with regard to meeting Russian considerations because then he would not have to face the electorate again for vote. Unfortunate for him as he did not realise that the microphones were already switched on and the media got hold of the whole conversation.

Immediately, the Republican opponents of Obama took advantage of this piece of information and called it alarming and upsetting and demanded that Obama must inform the public about his ‘real agenda’. Republican candidate Romney called Russia ‘the number one geopolitical enemy of the US’, which reminds one of the rhetoric of Cold War some twenty years back.

If we join this story with US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s remarks on Tuesday that a US opinion poll showing a substantial drop to less than 30 percent in public support for the war in Afghanistan would not alter Washington’s strategy, we can imagine how dangerous US politics is for the world and for Pakistan in particular. But our dilemma is that our leaders in power as well as in opposition take pride in becoming US stooges and have compromised our national interest. American Republican leaders were quick in denouncing President Obama for misleading US while our so-called independent media dares not educate their Pakistani viewers about American double standard or hypocrisy, which stands exposed due to this news leak.

ALI ASHRAF KHAN

Karachi