Your editorial of May 5 'Mounting pressure brings out certain pertinent points.Bin Laden affair has provided all our enemies a golden chance to thrash us and they are using it to the full.White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan said It is inconceivable that bin Laden did not have a support system in (Pakistan) that allowed him to remain there for an extended period of time. Moreover, in an in-camera testimony before a US Congress House panel, the CIA Director Leon Panetta said that he and other administration officials were trying to get to the bottom of the mater and said that Either they were involved or incompetent. Neither place is a good place to be. Previously, it was thought that military-to-military relations are excellent but recently, both Gen. David Petraeus and Adm. Mike Mullen spat venom against Pakistan which belies the optimism displayed by our authorities. It is bad enough America and Americans being against us, but the addition of Israel and India has made the combination far more lethal. As for Afghan leaders, they do show their true colours on occasions. They never accepted the Durand line and firmly believe that we are holding on to their territory which they want to repossess. American plan of merging our tribal areas with Afghanistan to create a Greater Pashtonistan suits them well. Just imagine how would they behave when their troop strength rises above four hundred thousands for which Americans are making strenuous efforts. The Americans also want to separate from us our vast, mineral-rich province, Balochistan, which also holds strategic importance. The American ambassador Cameron Munter has recently been to Balochistan and he offered Baloch government funds for building dams. Balochistan does need all the help it can get but if the Americans had to offer help, their first duty was to our tribal areas where their indiscriminate drone attacks have caused a havoc. This American interest in Balochistan plus their efforts to build a huge Consulate in Quetta only serve to confirm that they are planning to severe Balochistan from Pakistan. You quite rightly say The emerging scenario proves beyond any doubt that the US is no friends of ours, that it distrusts us as an ally in the war on terror. Only China has come out with unqualified praise for the efforts we have put in towards that end, and at what cost. The complexity of depressing circumstances in which we now find ourselves in should bring home to our leadership the point that our present choices are completely flawed and there is need for a redirection of foreign policy to ensure that the integrity and sovereignty of our homeland remain unharmed. And Beijing alone beckons us with hope. I hope our government takes the situation seriously and reshapes our foreign policy on the right lines, according well-deserved importance to our trusted friend and ally China, whose interest also coincide with those of ours. Unfortunately for us, our leaders consider surviving from day-to-day to be their biggest achievement and spend most of their time solving self-created problems, paying scant attention to matters that threaten our very existence. S.R.H. HASHMI, Karachi, May 5.