When Pakistan Army Sergeant Abdur Rehman hears America's oft-repeated demand that Pakistan do more to fight militants, he glances down at the stumps of his legs and wonders what more it wants from him.
A mortar bomb shredded him from the waist down as he led an advance against Taliban fighters in 2007 in Pakistan's unruly northwestern tribal areas on the Afghan border.
Instead of enjoying full retirement benefits, he underwent rehabilitation, was given artificial limbs and returned as a commander to a desk job in the militant-infested region where he was wounded.
"What more can Pakistanis do?," asked Rehman, 35.
In truth, Pakistan has indeed suffered more casualties against these jihadis than we have fighting in Afghanistan.
But that isn't the point.
The point is that Pakistan is hiding behind Sergeant Rehman and the thousands of Pakistani security personnel who have died to cloud the fact that Pakistan's government sent Rehman to fight some jihadis while others in the government protect jihadi sancturaries in North Waziristan and Baluchistan by refusing to send troops to those areas and shielding jihadis from our drone strikes.
To answer Rehman's question of what more can Pakistanis do, I suggest that Pakistanis insist that the government stop supporting and shielding the men who took Rehman's legs from him even as they ordered him to fight those men in a cynical ploy to play both sides of the war.
Pakistanis have a lot more questions to ask about what more Pakistanis must do.
