Sadanand Dhume, an Indian-sounding contributor to the Wall Street Journal, in his piece titled Playing Chicken with Pakistans Generals, joins the Western press campaign continuing to turn the heat on Pakistan. Most in this side of the hemisphere, particularly Muslim countries in and bordering South Asia, Middle and Far East know that desperation was the real cause of this sudden frontal US outburst against its principal frontline ally in the unholy war thrust upon the region known as the war on terror. Pakistan knows that the USAs failure to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table through an ill-advised military surge forced by its own generals had backfired and was causing the frustration. This was likely to increase with the US presidential elections drawing closer and failure of the Obama administration to announce a triumphant return from the Afghan campaign prior to that. Had the Americans been well intended and spent one-tenth of their time and money in genuinely rehabilitating Afghanistan devastated by the Russian invasion, the US may well have ruled the world today, as the true saviours of humanity. But there are plenty of analysts and think-tank wizards in the likes of Dhume, who keep daring the devil onto the self-immolation path. Dhume in his article has presented to the US an oversimplified recipe to discredit Pakistans military in the eyes of its people, starting with the familiar divisive attempt that the army - which claims to represent the whole nation - recruits 80 percent of its soldiers from 15 percent of its population concentrated in the northern Punjab and adjoining Khyber Pukhtunkhwa province. He wrote: The ability to erode the armys standing in Pakistani society is a potent weapon for the US, if Washington wants to use it. Stepped-up drone strikes, or an Abbottabad-style raid on another high-value terrorist target in Pakistan, would deal a huge blow to military prestige and its claim of safeguarding the countrys frontiers. The US, meanwhile, would reinforce the notion that nations which allow their territory to be used, to export terrorism, forfeit their sovereignty.As for the too big-to-fail bluff, the US should calmly inform Islamabad that nobody will be hurt more by a potential jihadist takeover than the army itself. Last thing first, my submission is that the prospect of a jihadist takeover, should it happen, would in fact continue to remain a nightmare for the US for whom they would have no corner. But it would in no way hurt the Pakistan Army because those being termed jihadists, would after all be from among its own countrymen. As for anyones ability to erode the armys standing in the Pakistani society, it has been witnessed that despite planned incursions by enemy agents aimed at hurting its image, such as the Tarbela Garrison assault, the stand-off at the army GHQ, the Mehran Naval Base attack and the Abbottabad odyssey, the people have stood firmly behind it - just as the Americans backed their marines, despite continued humiliation way back in Vietnam and now in Afghanistan. This is so, simply because people have no choice, but to look up to the men charged to defend their homeland. Dhume should not expect Pakistani people to turn to the US, Israel or India to defend them in the event of any such debacle. Moreover, it is unlikely that that the Pakistani establishment would not have done their homework making amends for their past lapses to be able to give a matching response to any future misadventure by forces inimical to the country. In the wake of a categorical clarification by Sirajuddin Haqqani that his group is no longer based in Pakistan - reinforced by our armys rejection of Washingtons allegations - there remains no contradiction in PM Gilanis assertion that any unilateral military action by the United States to hunt down Haqqani network inside Pakistan would be a violation of his country's sovereignty. This clearly means that Americas attempt is merely aimed at making the ISI a scapegoat because it stands in the way of Washingtons grand designs in the region. As to forfeiting the right to sovereignty, the hypothesis needs to be applied more aptly to the USA, Israel and India, because not only their soil and territory, but also their men, materials and agencies have remorselessly aided, invaded and subjugated the freedom and peace loving people of the Afro-Asian lands. Is it not ironical that while it is unacceptable for the US to countenance a few marine casualties in the war of its own making in Afghanistan, 35,000 lives lost by Pakistan are irrelevant to it, as Washington continues to pester Islamabad to do more, as if Pakistanis are the children of a lesser God. No more at last is the natural response by Pakistan. The All Parties Conference (APC) held on September 29 in Islamabad has sent a powerful message of civil-military solidarity to the world, rejecting any undue pressures or threats to the sovereign State of Pakistan. The forum has demonstrated maturity, poise and dignified restraint in its reaction to the nervous frustration and fury foul-mouthed by all and sundry in the US administration. You have tried the senseless war path; now let us give peace a chance is Pakistans message. The US and its NATO allies need to recognise the ground realities in Afghanistan after their decade-long senseless military campaign, instead of crying wolf over the Haqqani network, which 10 years down the line has emerged even stronger as a veritable arm of the Afghan Taliban and not the ISI. It happens to be in control of the majority of Afghanistan - a fact publicly testified by the ISI Chief. Also, only a mad cap could insist upon Pakistan to take them on when the collective might of the allied force could not. The writer is a freelance columnist. Email: zaheerbhatti1@gmail.com