It is about time we stopped playing second fiddle to the U.S

The American law makers have once again bared their teeth to us and put on hold aid to this country till we declare Shakeel Afridi as our hero by releasing him from the prison and also root out Haqqani group from our soil. We are not new to such treatment at the hand of US in the past. Whenever our almoners in Washington felt we were not obeying their orders they twisted our arms to make our rulers kowtow before themThis time too Sartaj Aziz and Fatimi are nursing the hope that Obama would pull his weight soon and persuade the American senators and congressmen to take a pity on us and remove the preconditions for the release of aid to us.
Our rulers never hang their heads in shame as the word shame is unknown to them. Since 1947 they have been playing a second fiddle to whosoever was the tenant of the White House. It was their short-sightedness that alienated Moscow from us which till to this day consider us a lackey of the US. While there might be some other irritants also behind America’s recent annoyance with Pakistan, the Americans no doubt feel that once Gwadar starts functioning no body can prevent China from using it as a naval base. These days the Yankees are visibly upset over closeness between Beijing and Islamabad and the Americans simply cannot stomach the fact that once Gwadar becomes operational as a seaport the Chinese would have an easy access to the Middle East through it . They are using the Indians and the Afghans also to torpedo the Sino-Pak economic corridor . Abdullah, Abdullah who is the chief executive of Afghanistan is a crony of India. His family is settled in India and he nurses a soft corner in his heart for the Indians.
One can change friends but not neighbours. China is our neighbour who, unlike America, has always stood by us in our hour of crises. It needs to be made clear to the Americans that while we value their friendship we would never be a party to any conspiracy to weaken or destabilise Beijing. We certainly don’t need any NOC from the US for chosing a friend.