happening behind the scene tells a different story.
Pakistan, going by recent reports, is making no secret of its resentment of U.S. policy, which in essence wants its military to do more to crack down on the Taliban and other militants using its territory as sanctuaries to launch attacks against U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.
That was in evidence last week when the Pakistani military refused to go along with a U.S. demand it go after Taliban commander Siraj Haqqani, who uses his North Waziristan hideout in Pakistan to plan attacks by his warriors across the border.
The Pakistani military argued it is already heavily involved in a counterinsurgency campaign in South Waziristan and that its resources cannot be further extended into North Waziristan. But the criticism against Pakistan is that its two-month old South Waziristan campaign has only targeted domestic militants who threaten the country's security and not against the Afghan Taliban using its territory as sanctuaries. The offensive also has only helped many of the militant leaders to escape to North Waziristan and other areas.
A senior Pakistani security official told The Times of London any confrontation with Haqqani could create more problems for the army and that "we cannot fight on so many fronts."
The Obama administration wants Pakistan, set to receive $1.5 billion of U.S. civilian aid a year for five years, to dismantle the Taliban sanctuaries in return for a long-term strategic bilateral partnership.
U.S. officials also say that besides Haqqani, top Taliban leaders including Mullah Mohammed Omar are using Quetta, capital of Pakistan's Baluchistan province, as their base, and that the United States may decide to go after these militants on its own through expanded Predator drone strikes if Pakistan doesn't cooperate.
As for Haqqani, The Times of London reported, American intelligence officials suspect Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence military spy agency uses him for its interests in Afghanistan.
A New York Times report, quoting officials, said Pakistanis feel the U.S. demand would go against the need to position their country in Afghanistan in any regional rearrangement that might involve its main rival India as well as Russia, China and Iran once America begins to draw down its troops starting in July 2011 under the Obama strategy. In that scenario, the support of Haqqani and his fighters who control substantial regions of Afghanistan would be vital.
"If America walks away, Pakistan is very worried that it will have India on its eastern border and India on its western border in Afghanistan," Tariq Fatemi, former Pakistani ambassador to the United States, told The New York Times.
The need to dismantle the Taliban and al-Qaida sanctuaries in Pakistan was stressed by Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, during his recent visit to Afghanistan.
Noting the insurgency in Afghanistan has grown "more violent, more pervasive and more sophisticated," Mullen told reporters in Kabul: "I remain deeply concerned by the growing level of collusion between the Afghan Taliban and al-Qaida and other extremist groups taking refuge across the border in Pakistan. 
"Getting at this network, which is now more entrenched, will be a far more difficult task than it was just one year ago."
Pakistan's resentment of U.S. AFPAK policy is also manifesting in other unlikely areas.
In what is seen as harassment, U.S. officials told The New York Times the Pakistani military and intelligence services are yet to clear visas for more than 100 Americans and that they are subjecting U.S. diplomatic vehicles to constant searches in major Pakistani cities. These problems have impacted personnel including development experts, junior-level diplomats and others, thereby affecting aid and other programs.
Pakistani officials did not deny the problems but blamed them on Americans taking photographs in sensitive areas or showing a lack of understanding of divisions within Pakistan about the United States. A U.S. Embassy official said the report on the photography incident was false.
"Unfortunately, the Americans are arrogant," a Pakistani security official said. "They think of themselves as omnipotent. That's how they come across."
CNN quoted U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Robert Wood as saying that the delay in granting visas has raised enough official concern and been taken up at "very senior levels" in the Pakistani government.
These developments come on top of other issues currently affecting U.S.-Pakistan relations. Among them are the recent arrests in Pakistan of five young Muslim Americans on suspicion of seeking to pursue jihadist training in that country and the cases of David C. Headley and Tahawwur Hussein Rana.
Headley, a Pakistan-raised U.S. national, was arrested in Chicago in October and is accused of conspiring with an extremist Islamic group in Pakistan to plot attacks in Denmark and India. Rana, identified by U.S. authorities as a Pakistani native and a Canadian citizen, is now in jail in Chicago as a terrorism suspect.
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