After years in which Musharraf proved unable or unwilling to rein in militants in Pakistan, U.S. officials say they are now more skeptical than ever that they can count on cooperation from Pakistan's military leaders, even including Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, a former head of Pakistan's spy agency, who replaced Musharraf as military chief last November.
Kayani has stressed to the Americans that his army is demoralized and weary. So far, he has declined to undertake the kind of counterinsurgency training for his soldiers that Washington believes is necessary.
The increasing U.S. mistrust of the Pakistani military, which has depended heavily on U.S. financial support, has been heightened by Kayani's reluctance to move more of the army's focus from the border with India to the tribal areas, a U.S. officer who dealt with the army here for several years said in an interview in July.
"To this day, the military does not see the Taliban as an existential threat to Pakistan," the officer said. The Pakistani army clung to the sovereignty of Pakistan, he said, as a way of keeping U.S. forces out of Pakistan because the presence of the U.S. army "would destroy the image of the Pakistani military."
A main challenge for Washington now will be to fix the attention of the two leaders of the coalition parties, Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Sharif, on the raging Taliban insurgency that not only threatens American soldiers in Afghanistan but also to destabilize Pakistan itself.
The campaign against the militants is unpopular here because it is seen as an American conflict foisted on the country. Washington would like the new government to explain that the effort to quell the Taliban is in Pakistan's interests as well.
So far, the coalition, distracted by internal machinations, has failed to make that case, even as the military has taken on the insurgents with new vigor in the past 10 days. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sought to emphasize continuity with the new leaders of Pakistan yesterday, saying the United States would keep pressing the Pakistani government to battle extremism within its borders.
President Bush, at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, made no statement about Musharraf's resignation. A White House spokesman, Gordon D. Johnson, said, "President Bush appreciates President Musharraf's efforts in the democratic transition of Pakistan as well as his commitment to fighting al-Qaida and extremist groups."
