Friends like these - America and Pakistan try to remember they are on the same side

WHEN George Bush met his Pakistani counterpart, Asif Zardari, at the UN General Assembly in New York this week, Pakistanis wanted to know one thing: is America going to invade Pakistan again? American special forces had launched a botched raid into Pakistan on September 3rd and Mr Zardari was supposed to take the American president to task. The response was less than clear. “Your words have been very strong about Pakistan’s sovereign right and sovereign duty to protect your country, and the United States wants to help,” said Mr Bush. It could be the sort of help Mr Zardari cannot refuse.

The two countries face a common challenge: Taliban insurgencies are burgeoning in both Afghanistan and Pakistan; al-Qaeda poses a threat from sanctuaries in the lawless border regions between the two countries. But America is frustrated at Pakistan’s reluctance to wage all-out war against the militants and has conducted a spate of missile strikes on the border region. This has stoked anti-American feeling, already rife in Pakistan.

A massive suicide-bomb attack on the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad on September 20th, which killed at least 53 people and wounded more than 260, seems not to have swung popular opinion against the militants. Many Pakistanis blame the atrocity on the government, for its pro-American policies, on India or on America itself. After the blast, which pulverised the international hotel, the rupee sank to a new low. For the average Pakistani, struggling with high food prices, it was simply a harbinger of yet more insecurity. The bombing bore the hallmarks of al-Qaeda, though a previously unknown group, Fedayeen Islam (Partisans of Islam), claimed responsibility. But some experts have pointed to terrorists with links to Pakistan’s military-intelligence establishment.

The army has stepped up operations in the tribal area of Bajaur and in Swat, in North-West Frontier Province (NWFP). This week it struck back at militants harassing security forces around NWFP’s capital, Peshawar. Afghanistan’s most senior diplomat in Pakistan, Abdul Khaliq Farahi, was this week kidnapped by militants in one of the town’s well-heeled suburbs. But the army risks repeating the mistakes made by NATO forces in Afghanistan—killing civilians and failing to protect locals. On September 23rd police killed five people and wounded several others when they opened fire on protesters in Swat, who were demanding basic amenities and an end to military operations.

As the leader of a political party that has won an election, Mr Zardari is better placed than his predecessor, Pervez Musharraf, to try to galvanise popular and parliamentary support for battling extremists. Just hours before the Marriott bombing, Mr Zardari made his first speech to parliament as president. He pledged to hold a parliamentary debate to forge a national counter-terrorism policy. And, in an attempt to win over the opposition, he promised to cede some of his sweeping presidential powers, such as the authority to dismiss parliament—though many doubt he will actually do so. After the blast, he went on television, promising to rid Pakistan of the “cancer” of terrorism. But there is little he can do to make America’s regional strategy popular. And just as, abroad, he lacks the power to reject Mr Bush’s “help”, so at home he is too weak to take on pro-Taliban hardliners in Pakistan’s army.