The United States and Pakistan, always prone to bickering, need a big idea to unite and sustain them through the testing battle in Afghanistan. So here's a strategic concept I've been trying out with officials in both countries: By partnering with America, Pakistan can gain sovereignty over all its tribal territory for the first time in its history - and thereby finally complete the task of building its own nation. This is a classic example of what strategists call a "positive sum" game, where, by working together, Washington and Islamabad could gain benefits that they would not achieve alone. But instead of cooperating, they have been trading resentful messages over the past month in which the United States requested Pakistan's help in closing Taliban havens and Pakistan responded, in effect, "Don't tell us what to do."
Here's the cold, hard truth: U.S. success in Afghanistan depends on Pakistan gaining sovereignty over the tribal belt. If the insurgents can continue to maintain their havens in North Waziristan and other tribal areas, then President Obama's surge of troops in Afghanistan will fail. It's that simple...
More at The Washington Post.
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To add to the above, those perceptions are not arising out of thin air, they are being actively promoted by the permanent establishment and its well developed network of media and think tank allies (in full frontal format by shireen mazari, former DG of the institute of strategic studies, in softer format by people like Maliha Lodhi, former ambassador to the US, and by many many more).
While Ignatius Bahadur was having his whiskey and soda with carefully selected officials in Pindi club, other officers were hard at work making sure the people of Pakistan know that the army is going to defend the country against all of America's nefarious plans.
Not ruling out that they may be right about some nefarious plans...who are we to know.
Some Pakistanis suspect the true motif of the US not to strengthen the state of Pakistan, but to carve it up into weak mini-states.
http://images.google.nl/images?hl=nl&source=hp&q=pakistan+pnac
This is done they claim by using divide and conquer: "Baluchistan" supported by CIA vs the central gov; Setting up the Tribal Pashtuns against the central gov; And blackwater/Xe psyops bombings to setup the sunni's against the shia's.
True or not, this is the view of many Pakistanis.
Even both the sunni and shia leaders in the terror bombed areas suspect blackwater being behind the "random" bombings against civilians.
The fact that the US wanted to "help" secure Pakistani nukes, in their eyes steal away their sovereignty doesn't really help to dispel these suspicions or promote mutual respect (deserved or not).
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The main reason the US is in the Middle East is not to achieve something but to block other possible players from achieving power (somewhat related to The Carter Doctrine).
True or not, perceptions matter a lot.