AS the US gets more desperate, it begins to increase the pressure on Pakistan, and with over 1000 Americans now dead in Afghanistan and no clear exit in sight, desperation is writ large over the US administration. So they are pushing Pakistan towards the edge through more destabilisation by insisting the Pakistan military commence a full-scale operation in North Waziristan Agency. According to officially placed reports in the US media, the Obama administration has now threatened Pakistan that unless it obeys their command relating to NWA, the Americans may themselves unilaterally conduct raids on the ground into Pakistan. Presumably, the US is counting on the fact that if the Pakistan's civil and military leadership accepted the drone attacks despite domestic opposition, they will also concede to the invasion of Pakistan's territory on the ground by US forces. But this would lead to a direct people-government confrontation and more terrorism if the Pakistan military did not respond to such a US move. However, the anti-Pakistan agenda of the US is far more expansive than just the operation in NWA. The US-Indo connivance against Pakistan has now become overt with US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, Robert Blake, clearing stating that in the context of the Pakistan-India relationship, the Kashmir issue should be pushed aside until "vital" issues like terrorism and trade have been addressed. Too bad Mr Blake does not understand Pakistan well enough to know that Kashmir is the most vital issue for Pakistan, not trade with India. But it does reflect the US administration's mindset vis-a-vis Pakistan. It is unfortunate that our leadership and even our Foreign Ministry have remained silent on this very contentious US statement. Nor is this all. The US has, to build a case against Pakistan on the terrorism issue, been deliberately planting evidence on young Pakistanis in the US and creating fake cases against them of helping the Taliban. The most recent is the case of Adnan Mirza who was lured by an FBI agent faking to be a Muslim with an interest in jehad and then planting hunting weapons on him so that he could be arrested on charges of "conspiring to help the Taliban fight US troops" Given the way the whole case of Dr Aafia has been unfolding and the strange instance of Faisal Shahzad, Adnan Mirza's conviction on 28 May is hardly convincing. Luckily for Adnan, his community work in Houston may help expose the US government's targeting of Pakistanis. Let us not forget what the UK's Labour government tried to do with the Pakistani students in Britain before the courts exposed the whole episode for the lie that it was. As Pakistanis what we should be asking is why our state is deliberately allowing its citizens to become collateral damage, in one way or another, to a US war which is now being directed at Pakistan itself.