IT was a widely anticipated and hyped speech and President Obama did on Thursday say many important things, to his own public and to the wider world, on his administration’s approach to national security issues. For Pakistan, being a frontline state in the fight against terrorism and intrinsically linked to the outcome in Afghanistan post-2014, there were both words of encouragement and concern. The American president acknowledged the “cost to our relationship with Pakistan of the unilateral May 2011 Osama bin Laden raid and admitted that “we are just now beginning to rebuild this important partnership”. Even if the ultimate choice would be no different a second time round, it is at least encouraging to note that the commander in chief of the US is both aware of and understands the ripple effects that his decisions can have on Pakistani state and society — especially since he has the power to greatly destabilise both with ill-advised actions.

However, on his comments about the “Afghan war theatre”, which the US takes to include Pakistan and its tribal areas, the president suggested that it would be business as usual on drone strikes until the end of 2014, the deadline for the handover of Afghan security to Afghan forces and for the withdrawal of most foreign troops. Drone strikes, for all their efficacy as acknowledged by even Pakistani military and civilian leaders, have become a bit like the tail wagging the dog, a tactic that has narrow military dividends but has come at the cost of poisoning the overall Pak-US relationship not least because the unilateral strikes violate the principles of sovereignty. Given President Obama’s resolve to exit the war in Afghanistan and the consensus in US foreign-policy circles that Pakistan is ‘more important’ or the ‘greater concern’ going forward, it is an unhappy realisation that the US still does not have a coherent Pakistan policy. Killing ‘enemies’ on Pakistani soil surely cannot be a meaningful substitute for a deeper engagement with the “more important” country in AfPak.