‘Despite hate, most Pakistanis would opt for US if given a chance’

Former US deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage has said that despite the negative public opinion in Pakistan of the US, almost any Pakistani, if given the opportunity to come to the United States, would “do it in a heartbeat” – implying that the relationship was very complex.

In an interview to a foreign news organisation, Armitage said while Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was condemning drone strikes and was demanding the US stop the strikes, in reality, Pakistan could stop the same if it actually wanted to.

He said each time the government of Pakistan spoke about drone strikes and did nothing about it, it incited public opinion in Pakistan, but it did not do anything to resolve the issue.

When asked about the Abbottabad Commission report stating that the raid to kill Osama bin Laden was ‘an act of war’ by the US, Armitage brushed it aside, saying he did not care what the report indicated, and that it was not a US report. He said it was not an act of war and that the US went after and took out a terrorist.

According to the Abbottabad Commission report, the Americans had been asked to stop drone strikes because of the civilian casualties they caused. “It was easier to say no to them in the beginning, but ‘now it was more difficult’ to do so,” former DG ISI Ahmed Shuja Pasha has been quoted as saying in the report.

The report further quotes Pasha to have said; “Admittedly the drone attacks had their utility, but they represented a breach of national sovereignty. They were legal according to American law but illegal according to international law.”