Islamabad, Pakistan - If he cooperates with Washington, he risks the wrath of Islamic fundamentalists. If he doesn't, he risks the fury of Washington.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf faces a dilemma in what could be a major U.S. assault on neighboring Afghanistan and the suspected terrorists it harbors.
Pakistan asked for more time Friday to consider Washington's requests in the wake of this week's terror attacks in the United States. That reportedly included a request to use Pakistani air space in the event of an attack on Afghanistan, and the closure of the Pakistani- Afghan border.
Militants on Friday threatened "jihad," or holy war, if Musharraf caved in to U.S. demands.
Some liberals urged the government to place itself squarely on Washington's side.
But in its editorial Friday, The News daily recalled Pakistan's Cold War alliance with the United States, which it said helped plunge the country into chaos by bolstering banditry and religious radicalism. The United States allied itself with many religious militants in the region while trying to drive the Soviet Union out of Afghanistan in the 1980s.
"Participating in any U.S. operation will be just as hazardous as not participating in it," the editorial said.
Since taking office in a bloodless coup nearly two years ago, Musharraf has performed a balancing act between seeking to modernize his poverty-stricken nation of 140 million people and keeping the fundamentalists at bay.
Pakistan has maintained close ties to Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia, which is accused of sheltering terrorists who might be behind this week's terror attacks, the worst in U.S. history. Those relations have strained ties with Washington but earned Pakistan a measure of security on its western border.
For now, Musharraf has pledged full cooperation with Washington.
"Pakistan ... will assist in the eradication of terrorism," Gen. Rashid Quereshi, Musharraf's chief spokesman, told The Associated Press.
Responsibility for the attacks has not yet been established. But U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Colin Powell, say the prime suspect is Osama bin Laden, a Saudi exile hiding out in Afghanistan.
A major U.S. attack on Afghanistan would likely place heavy burdens on Pakistan, which could be called upon to provide air and ground space and to share the intelligence it has collected on both bin Laden and the Taliban.
On Friday, a senior U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity confirmed that the Bush administration is asking Pakistan for permission to fly through its territory if airstrikes are ordered against Afghan targets.
The official also said Washington has asked Pakistan to close its 1,560-mile border with Afghanistan, presumably to prevent bin Laden's operatives from leaving.
A top Pakistani official said Friday that Pakistan has asked the United States for time to consider its demands. Musharraf met with his military high command Friday to discuss Pakistan's options, though details of that meeting were sketchy.
"In the mood they are in, the Americans are not going to indulge fence sitters," former Pakistani senator Shafqat Mahmood wrote in a newspaper column Friday.
The potential price of cooperating with Washington was illustrated during Sabbath prayers at mosques throughout Pakistan on Friday.
The terror attacks were "punishment from God for what the Americans have done to Muslims," prayer leader Maulana Abdul Aziz said from a pulpit in the capital of Islamabad.
"We will join the jihad against the West if the Americans dare attack Afghanistan," said Muslim cleric Hasan Jan in Peshawar, a city on the Afghan border. Hundreds of his followers responded with chants of "Jihad! Jihad!"
"We shall be on the streets. We will be shouting against Americans and the whole Muslim world will be shouting against Americans" if Pakistan caves in to Washington, said Munawwar Hassan, General Secretary of the Muslim Party Jamaat-e-Islami.
History has shown that fundamentalist threats against Americans in Pakistan are not hollow.
In 1979, protesters burned down
the U.S. Embassy here following the takeover of holy sites in Saudi Arabia
by Muslim dissidents. In 1989, demonstrators attacked U.S. offices in Islamabad
during a protest against author Salman Rushdie's "Satanic Verses."