Egypt, and Saudi Arabia once told me that Pakistanis are as crazy as a bag of snakes.

A mediator once told me that to understand the other, we need to understand their attitudes and assumptions.

What is a working definition of peace between the US and Pakistan, and what are the most widely held attitudes and assumptions about us there?

I hope my friend is eventually shown to have been mistaken. We have our share of people who could fairly be characterized the same way, one of whom is running for President.

The Government of Pakistan is controlled by a ruling elite who want to rule not only Pakistan but India. Right now they know they can not Conquer India, but that is their goal. They are supported by the House of Saud in that goal. Anybody you rejects that goal is not permitted to stay in the ruling elite. Please note the people excluded from the ruling elite for this reasons include the 99% who just want to live their lives.

Pakistan's elite saw Afghanistan asa strategic fall back position in any war with India, thus they jumped at the chance to support the US's efforts to support the natives of Afghanistan against the Soviets. As to the US war in Afghanistan, they liked the money the US was providing and thus Pakistan ended up supporting both sides. The Elite still wants the US money, so is going through the motions of supporting the US, but at the same time keeping in contact with the Taliban.

The Taliban was created by Pakistan to unite Afghanistan after the collapse of the communist government of Afghanistan. After that collapse you ended up with no government, thus Pakistsn created the Taliban to provide a centralized government. Pakistan could do this for the Phustans exists on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and are the majority in Afghanistan proper. The House of Saud supported Pakistan in this regard.

Thus the ruling elite of Pakistan wants as much money as they can get from the US, and to max out that money they must go through the motions of attacking the Taliban. At the same time they support the Taliban in Afghanistan.

A third complication is that the mountain region of Pakistan, where the Pusthans live, has always been a no-go place for whoever was ruling the Indus valley since before the days of the British East Indies Company. The Pakistan Army did not go into that area it was left alone. The Pakistan Army had plans to retreat to that area in case of a crushing defeat by India, but it was a fall back pposition not a defensive position.

To keep that area of Pakistan happy, no troop went into that area without local permission. That is still the rule, but with US aid, Pakistan's army can buy that permission. On the other hand the Pusthans support the Taliban more than the present Pakistan Government. Thus support for rebellion within Pakistan is strong even among the ruling elite.

These groups are NOT fixed in membership with a good many of thetge elite being a member of more then one group (and some are members of all of the groups). Thus the comments that.compared it with snakes, some times they work together for and ag a against the US, some times they end up fighting each other. That the ruling elite speaks the Moslem language of India, while most other speak a different language shoes another division oin the country. It is a snake pit and will remain so till the peasants if of Pakistan revolt and do a French Revolution to tjise ruling elites. You can see this in the support fradical Islam in Pakistan, which like the Sanders and Trump Campaigns in the US indicate a desire for radical change.