Congratulations on your emphatic victory and making it to the White House. You deserve heartfelt accolade and your win may be denominated as a tour de force as cards were heavily stacked against you. Mr President, you are fortunate as the people, for the first time in history, across the globe are cock-a-hoop over the entry of a person in White House as they are expecting some thing superlative from you. Now you will have to jump through hoops to live up to their expectations. It is the biz that soon after getting sworn-in, you intend to visit Pakistan. This intention represents your sound judgement of mind as Pakistan is one of the pivotal states on the map of the world, especially in the present scenario. Before you swear-in and start following the madcap policies of your predecessor, I want to confer with you the case of Pakistan. Mr President, at this moment when the drones of your country are lobbing missiles on Pakistan in the name of killing terrorists more often than not, I suggest you to revisit this policy as it will not be worth your while and will go a miss, as Pakistan has always sided with the US in all its battles at the cost of annoying many influential powers in the world and harvesting rebarbative consequences at the home front. By staging attacks on Pakistan, the US is alienating a goose that has laid golden eggs for it many times in the past and has the potential to do so in the future. Given the geo-strategic location of Pakistan, it would be highly impolitic for the US to develop an estrangement with Pakistan. It was the importance of Pakistan that wheedled the US into wooing it rightaway after its birth. The history is a testament to the fact that it would have been impossibly difficult for your country to cope with the significant threats posed to it without the help of Pakistan. Let us have an analysis of some epoch-making events to lend colour to this fact. Firstly, in 1950s when your country was bending over backwards to contain the Soviet Union and China and with this end in view it created SEATO and CENTO, Pakistan joined both the pacts and went a step further by entering into two bilateral military agreements with the US in 1954 and 1959. By deciding to throw in its lot with the US, Pakistan paid a heavy price in the form of annoying Russia and China. Moscow not only bashed Pakistan but also decided to provide helping hand to India in order to punish Pakistan. But be that it may, Pakistan continued to support the US. Following the fall of China to communists in 1949 and the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, the US became panic-stricken and made an entreaty to Pakistan to come to its help to half the rising tide of communism in the Asian continent. It was Pakistan that helped the US to get the better of communist ideology and frustrate Russia's idee fixe to reach the waters of the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea. The fight of the US against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan gave birth to an enormous humanitarian crisis. And again it was Pakistan that came to the fore to shoulder the burden of these refugees. Secondly, Mr President, China, a major economic superpower of the world at present time, was off-limits to your country. It was Pakistan that helped your country to mark a new beginning in relations with China. In October 1970, Nixon requested Yahya Khan in a meeting in New York to inform the Chinese leaders during his visit to China in November that the US considered rapprochement with China essential. Upon his return, Yahya Khan conveyed the Chinese response in an elaborately confidential manner. For four months thereafter, messages were passed on Henry Kissinger-Agha Hilaly-Yahya Khan channel to Beijing in utter secrecy. Pakistan was equally helpful in arranging Kissinger's secret trip for talks in Beijing from July 9-11, 1971. Here again Pakistan drew the ire of Russia for supporting your country. The Soviet Union decided to support India to mortify Pakistan for having served as an intermediary. Thirdly, it is Pakistan's support to the so-called US War On Terror. The previous regime in Pakistan turned its back on the friendly regime of Taliban in Afghanistan and decided to jump on the US bandwagon. Mr President, it was the importance of Pakistan that made your country to ask for its support before invading Afghanistan. Without getting the tactical know-how and logistical support from Pakistan, it would have been chimerical for the US to jump into uncharted waters of Afghanistan. It is on everybody's lips that Pakistan has suffered more losses and casualties than other allies of your country in Afghanistan. Mr President, Pakistan supported the US and has become a killing field in the wake of suicide bombings of terrorists and extremists. But what gives one the willies is that instead of tiding Pakistan over its problems, which have sprung due to its support to the US, your country has ordered attacks on it. If the US will not revisit its policy, please note down that Pakistan has its role to play in the future and the US will have the compulsions down the road again to take recourse to Pakistan for its support but then Pakistan's response will be "the US can whistle for this", as anti-American sentiments are running high in the country due to the paint-by-numbers strategies followed by the US. The US accuses Pakistan of terrorism and fundamentalism but Mr President, it was your country that fed the fires of Islamic fundamentalism to defeat the Communism. If you really want to take on terrorism, you will have to eschew the policies of political and economic exploitation of the Muslim societies because this exploitation gives rise to deprivations which, in turn, fan the flames of hatred against your country and make the people trigger-happy. You will have to stop the support of corrupt, authoritarian and unpopular regimes in Muslim societies which your country is doing at the expense of the populace and pull out your forces out of the Muslim lands which the US has entered to occupy their resources. With best wishes, A Pakistani E-mail: irfanasghar99@yahoo.com