While the Pakistani leadership both the present one and the previous one have effectively paralysed Pakistani diplomacy as a result of a total submission before US diktat post-9/11, our friends in our larger operational neighbourhood are showing how one can live and thrive globally without either allying with the US or by sustaining an alliance with the US on terms that neither limit ones options, nor undermine ones national interests. First, take the case of Iran a state the US has sought to vilify one way or another since its surrogate the Shah was overthrown by an indigenous revolution. The Islamic Revolution in Iran survived the Iraq war launched against it, aided and abetted by the West, including the supply of chemical weapons; it survived various US schemes to undermine it from within and without; and Iran today cannot be discounted as a major regional player, despite US attempts to isolate it. In fact, thanks to the US war in Iraq and its efforts to destabilise the Arab states of this region, Iran has gained increasing operational space for exercising its influence in the vacuum created after the end of the Saddam regime and the undermining of the surrounding Arab states. Despite US and European pressure and sanctions, Irans peaceful nuclear development continues apace and now may even be converted to a military capability although the regime continues to deny this and the IAEA can find no proof of it as does its weapons development. As for its international diplomacy, Iran has reached out to Latin American leaders especially those defiant of the US as well as cultivating its influence closer to home. Iranian investments dominate Dubai, despite the Three Islands territorial dispute with the UAE; and President Ahmedinejad is beginning a state visit to Lebanon on Wednesday, October 13. The streets of Beirut are lined with his portrait and as US analysts like Robert Kaplan of the Washington-based Center for a New American Security concede, this visit is a public demonstration of the influence Iran enjoys in the region including in Lebanon. Only recently, the Syrian and Iranian leaders had also met and bolstered their relations. So, rather than being isolated, Iran continues on a robust diplomatic course, including the increasing influence post-Saddam in Iraq. This is not to say, Iran has not suffered as a result of US sanctions and Western hostility but it has chosen to follow its own nationalist path which one may or may not agree with with a conviction that allows it to assert its national interests and objectives. An even more relevant example for Pakistan is the case of Turkey a member of NATO and a historic partner of the US. Despite this, it did not give the US a free ride over its territory into Iraq unlike Musharrafs Pakistan. The new Turkish leadership is also challenging Israel, despite having a long and close relationship with that entity and has been one of the most active states from the OIC collectivity exposing Israeli state terrorism and contradictions. The Turkish leadership is also reaching out to Syria another state that the US has sought to isolate. On Monday, in Damascus, Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan and Syrian President Assad showed their desire to play a pro-active role in regional matters as they discussed their concerns over the continuing Iraq crisis, where seven months on after the elections the political factions cannot agree on a new government; the deadlocked Palestine-Israel peace negotiations and the need to curb the PKK which is conducting a terror campaign in Turkey. Turkey and Syria have become close allies in recent years and the latter sees the former as someone it can trust as a mediator with Israel. The point in all this, from the Pakistani perspective, being that these states do not allow the US to either paralyse them globally or define their global agendas despite being allied with this superpower. Pakistan, in contrast, has gone into a mode of psychological confidence deficit and has gradually lost all initiative on the world stage. Where once we were in the forefront of the Muslim World and its causes when we were a young nation with little in terms of material capabilities we now stand unsure of ourselves and hesitant to do anything that may upset the US. Just to recall some of our heady days of early independence and our national self-confidence, the Tunisian leader Bourguiba travelled on a Pakistani passport as did many of the Algerian leadership all fighting for their independence from the shackles of colonialism; and the only two Syrian fighter planes that flew and brought down Israeli planes in the 1973 Arab-Israeli War were flown by volunteer fighter pilots from the PAF. We never faltered in our self-belief that we could make a difference and we did with masterful diplomacy compensating for our material weaknesses. Z. A. Bhutto epitomised this not only in the Polish Resolution drama at the UN after the creation of Bangladesh, but also in the way he recognised Bangladesh (leaving India isolated on the POW issue) and restored national morale with the OIC Summit in Lahore. Our professional diplomats became legends at the UN, where now they are making a name for themselves by showing how far they will kowtow before India and the US. What of today? We are not moving anywhere beyond where the US wishes us to move. So we concede ground to NATO, Afghanistan and India on supply routes and transit trade and completely undermine our position on Kashmir, not just at the UN, but also in other capitals. For instance, why did our ambassador ignore the FAO error of omitting labelling Kashmir a Disputed Territory which it is legally according to the UN which is where the FAO derives its legitimacy? There was a time when we compelled the UN to concede to using the term albeit conditionally Azad Jammu and Kashmir (credit to our late Ambassador Shahnawaz) but now we are unable or unwilling to simply point out facts to organisations like the FAO lest India get upset As for the US, we do not have an alliance with it; we are simply now a lackey, to do their bidding as they will. They have taken over our economic management through their loyal surrogates , the Doctors Shaikh and Haque (also christened Tweedledum and Tweedledee), who are globetrotting more than actually understanding what the country wants and needs and are blinded by the glitter of privatisation at all costs, even if it means destroying public sector higher education. And they have reduced our nuclear armed forces to a state where instead of defending our borders and people, they are facilitating in their killing for example by US drones. Will we ever get our commitment and self-confidence back again? Certainly not, under the present choice of leadership, which is even fearful to undertake state visits or invite state visits from friends the US disapproves of There is really nothing left to say, is there on this pitiable state of affairs?