President Zardari in his interview with the Wall Street Journal during his visit to the US declared, "I am an American friend." But so was President Musharraf. In his bid therefore to beat Musharraf at the game of sycophancy he felt no qualms in adding insult to the injury inflicted by the Americans on Pakistan by claiming that the US missile attacks in the tribal areas are being carried out with the government's approval. The information minister came out with denial on behalf of the president but the Journal did not recant the story. Whether the Journal or the information minister is to be believed let the ground realities speak for themselves. The successive US missile attacks on October 8, 11, and 16 killing more than 16 tribesman including women and children and wounding a number of others were taken completely lying down by the government. The attacking predators were neither fired upon nor chased by the security forces. Nor was any protest lodged against these attacks. The president's no hold barred collaboration in the US aggression against Pakistan has been corroborated by the New York Times report that the US military ground operations on September 3 killing 20 people was carried out with the approval of Pakistan's new government. Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi tried to calm down the unrest in the nation by telling them that the president will take up the matter with Bush when he meets him in New York. However in the briefing that the information minister gave to the journalist immediately after the Bush-Zardari meeting there was no indication whatsoever that President Zardari sought for any assurance from President Bush against such attacks in future. General Shahid Aziz, who served as the chief of the General staff from October 2001 to December 2003 in his article published in a local newspaper on September 14 came out with the most stunning revelation - namely the Pakistan Army as an institution did not know what was going on between Islamabad and Washington and that the military leadership was strongly opposed to the handing over of Pakistan to the US. Musharraf also allowed the US forces the use of Pakistani air space for intelligence sharing and permitted American Intelligence Agencies - CIA and FBI - to recruit their agents in the tribal belt of Pakistan and that the Pak army commanders were dead opposed to Pakistan joining the War On Terror. General Shahid later appointed as the chairman of the NAB preferred to resign when asked to close down the cell pursuing the corruption cases. This discloses that the cell was closed not for the want of evidence but because of the deal between Zardari and Musharraf brokered by the Bush Administration. However, President Zardari's owning up of the War On Terror as Pakistan's own war runs counter to the wishes and the sentiments of the people of Pakistan. A poll carried out by the PEW and the International Republican Institute shows that 89 percent of the people of Pakistan disapprove the ongoing War On Terror. The Taliban are primarily locked up in helping their Afghan brothers in resisting the US occupation of Afghanistan which is justified under the UN General Assembly Resolutions and also under the divine commandment (IV: 75) and they have become embroiled in fighting the security forces only because the later is punishing them for resisting the US occupation in Afghanistan. The Taliban are more than willing for peace with Pakistan and for coming to an agreement with the government. How sad and strange that while the US-led NATO military command and the Karzai government in Afghanistan are already engaged in negotiations with the Taliban through the good offices of Saudi Arabia, however the military leadership of Pakistan as well as the incumbent coalition government should remain so adamant in continuing the course of armed confrontation with the Taliban. Undoubtedly, the path to doom is paved with such capitulations. The writer is the author of the book The End of Illusions and a political analyst E-mail: israrulhaq27@yahoo.com