US cannot afford to see Pakistan fail but its options in Pakistan are diminishing rapidly.

A panel of top Pakistan experts and former US officials, including Richard Armitage, the man who threatened to bomb Pakistan into the Stone Age and Rep. Lee Hamilton, who headed the 9/11 Commission, has prepared a detailed report which says the US cannot afford to see Pakistan fail but its options in Pakistan are diminishing rapidly.

"Pakistan may be the single greatest challenge facing the next American President...Washington needs to rethink its approach to Pakistan. If we genuinely believe that a stable, prosperous Pakistan is in our interest, we must be much smarter about how we work with Pakistan and what sort of assistance we provide," the report released by the Pakistan Policy Working Group says.The Group claims to be an independent, bipartisan group of American experts on USñPakistan relations and was formed in January 2008 to assess the state of these relations and to offer ideas to the next US President and his Administration on managing this critical partnership.

It says effecting smarter diplomacy in this environment laden with political unrest and palpable anti-Americanism, the US is facing tremendous diplomatic challenges. "Given the disappointments with Pakistan's elected government, some in the US may feel nostalgia for the days when President Musharraf wore his uniform and commanded a docile parliament. But just as the US was too slow in detecting the public disaffection with President Musharraf before the 2008 elections, it must not too quickly lose patience with Pakistan's elected leaders."