Threats of US military action inside Pakistan to counter Al Qaeda militants highlight the shaky relationship between these key players in the war on terror and could escalate anti-American sentiments in the country. US President George W Bush said this week he would "absolutely" order military operations inside Pakistan if Osama bin Laden or other top terrorists were found to be hiding here. President General Pervez Musharraf later said that after the September 11, 2001 attacks the United States had threatened to blow his Islamic nation "back to the Stone Age" unless he stopped supporting Afghanistan's Taliban regime and joined the American-led war on terror. "These comments only expose how tenuous and fragile Pakistan's relationship is with the United States," Pakistani analyst and retired army general Talat Masood said on Friday. "They prove a lot more has to be done to establish a relationship on a much more solid foundation."
Bush has repeatedly praised Pakistan for arresting hundreds of Al Qaeda operatives. But the United States has also said Pakistan can do more to prevent militants crossing from its tribal regions into Afghanistan, where Taliban-fanned violence has reached its deadliest level since the US-led invasion. On Wednesday, Bush told CNN he would order American military action in Pakistan if actionable inte