Anti-American sentiment in Pakistan has been evident through public demonstrations and burning of the flag of the United States. [1] When measured in 2009 Pakistan was amongst the countries with the strongest such antipathy. [2] According to Anatol Lieven, anti-American sentiment in Pakistan is characterised more by political hostilities rather than racial or religious undertones. [3]
Reasons for unpopularity have included cultural issues and US foreign policy actions. Cultural grievances have been perceived affronts to Islam by US citizens. [4] Unpopular foreign policy actions have included U.S. military actions on Pakistani soil such as drone attacks, [5] [6] the operation to kill Osama Bin Laden [7] [8] and the 2011 NATO attack in Pakistan, as well CIA activities such as the Raymond Allen Davis incident, and the perceived inadequate US response to the humanitarian crisis of the 2010 Pakistan floods. [9] The slogan "Death to America" is a common refrain among politicians and rallies in Pakistan. [10] [11]
For most of its history, Pakistan has had turbulent relations with the United States, leading to deep-rooted public antipathy. A 2014 Pew Research Center poll suggested that 59% of Pakistanis viewed the United States either very unfavorably or somewhat unfavorably, down from 80% in 2012. [12] According to a Gallup survey, 72% of the population thinks the U.S. is an enemy and an alarming 80% of PTI supporters consider the same. [13]
During the 2022 Pakistani constitutional crisis, PTI leader Imran Khan named the United States as the country in question over a 'threatening letter' and blames America for his downfall, [14] according to a survey by Gallup Pakistan, most Pakistanis were ‘angry’ about the removal of Khan as prime minister, and close to a majority believe his claims that his downfall was due to an American ‘regime change’ campaign. [15]
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was a Saudi-born Islamic dissident and militant leader who was the founder and first general emir of al-Qaeda from 1988 until his death in 2011. Ideologically a pan-Islamist, his organization is designated as a terrorist group by the United Nations Security Council, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the European Union, and various other countries. He is most widely known as the mastermind of the September 11 attacks in the United States.
Anti-Americanism is a term that can describe several sentiments and positions including opposition to, fear of, distrust of, prejudice against or hatred toward the United States, its government, its foreign policy, or Americans in general.
Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi is a Pakistani politician and former cricketer who served as the 22nd prime minister of Pakistan from August 2018 until April 2022. He is the founder and former chairman of the political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) from 1996 to 2023. He was the captain of the Pakistan national cricket team throughout the 1980s and early 90s.
Operation Infinite Reach was the codename for American cruise missile strikes on al-Qaeda bases that were launched concurrently across two continents on 20 August 1998. Launched by the U.S. Navy, the strikes hit the al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum, Sudan, and a camp in Khost Province, Afghanistan, in retaliation for al-Qaeda's August 7 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed 224 people and injured over 4,000 others. Operation Infinite Reach was the first time the United States acknowledged a preemptive strike against a violent non-state actor.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf is a political party in Pakistan established in 1996 by Pakistani cricketer and politician Imran Khan, who served as the country's prime minister from 2018 to 2022. The PTI ranks among the three major Pakistani political parties alongside the Pakistan Muslim League–Nawaz (PML–N) and the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), and it is the largest party in terms of representation in the National Assembly of Pakistan since the 2018 general election. With over 10 million members in Pakistan and abroad, it claims to be the country's largest political party by primary membership, as well as one of the largest political parties in the world.
Anatol Lieven is a British author, journalist, and policy analyst best known for his expertise on the Taliban of Afghanistan. He is currently a visiting professor at King's College London and senior fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. He is also a contributor to the Valdai Discussion Club.
Pakistan and the United States established relations on 15 August 1947, a day after the independence of Pakistan, when the United States became one of the first nations to recognize Pakistan.
This is a list of activities ostensibly carried out by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) within Pakistan. It has been alleged by such authors as Ahmed Rashid that the CIA and ISI have been waging a clandestine war. The Afghan Taliban—with whom the United States was officially in conflict—was headquartered in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas during the war and according to some reports is largely funded by the ISI. The Pakistani government denies this.
Anti-American sentiment in Korea began with the earliest contact between the two nations and continued after the division of Korea and Korean War. Despite this, as of 2011, 74% of South Koreans have a favorable view of the U.S., making it one of the most pro-American countries in the world.
Between 2004 and 2018, the United States government attacked thousands of targets in northwest Pakistan using unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) operated by the United States Air Force under the operational control of the Central Intelligence Agency's Special Activities Division. Most of these attacks were on targets in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas along the Afghan border in northwest Pakistan. These strikes began during the administration of United States President George W. Bush, and increased substantially under his successor Barack Obama. Some in the media referred to the attacks as a "drone war". The George W. Bush administration officially denied the extent of its policy; in May 2013, the Obama administration acknowledged for the first time that four US citizens had been killed in the strikes. In December 2013, the National Assembly of Pakistan unanimously approved a resolution against US drone strikes in Pakistan, calling them a violation of "the charter of the United Nations, international laws and humanitarian norms."
For purposes of U.S. foreign policy, South Asia consists of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. The Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs was Nisha Desai Biswal.
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Anti-American sentiment in Afghanistan has been encouraged by the Quran burning incident and the leaking online of a video of US troops urinating on Taliban fighters. Drone strikes have also led to growing anti-Americanism in and beyond Afghanistan.
Pervez Khan Khattak is a Pakistani politician who served as the Minister of Defence from August 2018 until April 2022. He had been a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan from August 2018 till January 2023. Prior to that, he served as the 22nd Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from 2013 to 2018, elected to the Provincial Assembly from Nowshera District. He was a senior member of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf until July 2023, when he formed his breakaway faction, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Parliamentarians (PTI-P). On 12 February 2024, he left the chairmanship of the PTI-P and took a break from politics tenders resignation as PTI-P chairman due to ‘health issues’.
The Inter–Services Intelligence has been alleged or previously documented by various authors of running an active military intelligence program in the United States, as well as operational activities related to America outside the country.
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America Right or Wrong: An Anatomy of American Nationalism is a 2012 book by the British author and academic Anatol Lieven. A separate, earlier version was published in 2004.
Anti-American sentiment in Germany is the dislike of the American government or people present in Germany. Anti-Americanism has been present in Germany throughout history with several notable incidents. Anti-Americanism was advanced by local leaders under the influence of the former Soviet Union, during the Cold War in East Germany, with dissenters being punished. In West Germany, this sentiment was generally limited to left wing politicians.
Pro-Americanism describes support, love, or admiration for the United States, its government and economic system, its foreign policy, the American people, and/or American culture, typically on the part of people who are not American citizens or otherwise living outside of the United States. In this sense, it differs from Americanism, which can generally only be adhered to by American citizens or residents, although adherents of any of these may subscribe to overlapping concepts, such as American exceptionalism. Pro-Americanism is contrasted with Anti-Americanism, which is the fear or hatred of things American.
Lettergate is an American-Pakistani political affair set off by a conversation at a farewell lunch for Asad Majeed Khan, the then-Pakistani ambassador to the United States, which took place on 7 March 2022 at Khan's official residence, also known as Pakistan House. A diplomatic telegram sent by Ambassador Khan to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was based on the notes taken by the note-taker, who was from the embassy of Pakistan based in Washington, D.C. The telegram allegedly stated that in the course of the meeting the United States had expressed a desire to the government of Pakistan for prime minister Imran Khan to be removed from office because of his refusal to abandon his neutral stance on the war between Russia and Ukraine and back the Ukrainians, with a promise of warmer relations if his removal occurred, and threatening isolation if it did not. The lunch was attended by US officials including then US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu and Deputy Assistant Secretary Lesslie Viguerie. The Pakistani diplomats attending the lunch meeting included Deputy Chief of Mission Syed Naveed Bokhari and the defence attaché.