Pakistan in Denial

Via Spencer Ackerman, Jane Perlez writes that Pakistani security officials are concerned that anti-Indian extremist groups they’ve nurtured are building ties with al-Qaeda but they don’t know how to admit this:

The senior personnel in the security forces seem to understand the gravity of the militants’ strength and the durability of their network, Mr. Saleem said. But they cannot bring themselves to say publicly that those whom they created are coming back to bite them, he said.

The problem arguably runs even deeper than this. IRI’s May 2009 survey of Pakistani public opinion asked the following question: “Terrorists recently attacked the city of Mumbia, killing 164 people. The news is reporting that the attacks were planned in Pakistan and carried out by Lashkar-e-Taiba. Do you believe this is true.” 78 percent said no. Just seven percent said yes. By contrast slightly over eight percent of Americans claim to have personally witnessed an alien spaceship. In other words, it’s not just that Pakistanis don’t believe the anti-Indian terrorist groups their government has been nurturing are a threat to them, in Pakistan belief that anti-Indian terrorist groups are perpetrating attacks against India is a bit of a fringe idea.

So who do Pakistanis think was responsible?

India!

I bring this up not to rag on the population of Pakistan, but simply to point out that a lot of American commentary on Pakistani behavior seems to me to not seriously engage with the Pakistani epistemic situation. In our narrative about ourselves, Pakistan is threatened by trans-border Taliban operations and we’re working with our partners in Afghanistan to help stabilize the situation. The Pakistani view is that the Karzai government is a hostile, pro-Indian entity. The American view is that Pakistani security forces are playing a dangerous double game with lethal anti-Indian terrorists. The Pakistani view is, I guess, that terrorist attacks perpetrated in India are false flag operations designed to discredit them.