After Raymond Davis, a US national, killed two Pakistanis (and his mysterious saviours a third Pakistani), the US State Department, its embassy in Pakistan, and its consulate in Lahore issued contradictory statements. Whether he is actually Raymond Davis, a US diplomat in Pakistan, part of the non-diplomatic staff of the US embassy in Pakistan, or spy on the payroll of CIA's, or its proxies, remains a mystery. Yet the US claims diplomatic immunity for him.
In spite of Pakistan's Foreign Office denying his diplomatic status, the US assertion that Davis's passport is stamped with a diplomatic visa without presenting any proof in the Lahore High Court suggests that he is not a diplomat and doesn't enjoy immunity from prosecution in Pakistan.
In this backdrop, the US insistence that Davis is entitled to diplomatic immunity is hurting the US image in Pakistan. Worse still, the US appears concerned more about saving Davis and not about justice being done - a value it trampled all along at a huge cost to its global image.
Even if the US succeeds in fudging a way out courtesy Pakistan's blindly pro-US regime, the exercise would leave deep scars on the US image. Davis's exit in spite of doing what he did won't be forgotten; it will serve as yet another proof of US hegemony. Surely, the Americans believe in justice for all but, like Pakistanis, they keep elevating to power courtesy their grossly mutilated democracy (or is it de-mockery?) a class that does more damage to the US than our self-styled democrats do to Pakistan.
How well democracy served the US was demonstrated by the global recession rooted in the US mortgage fiasco; the US is now the most indebted nation in the world courtesy its failed invasions. Pakistan, another 'great' US-backed democracy, is close to bankruptcy courtesy its corrupt democrats.
Although several days have passed since the Lahore incident, you don't hear much in the US media in terms of criticism of the State Department's handling of this affair, nor about why Davis - the claimed US diplomat - was carrying unlicensed lethal weapons on the streets of Lahore.
By not holding its state functionaries accountable the US public is at par with the clueless Pakistanis. Proof: one class of the rockets the US has in its arsenal is called "patriot"; Americans never asked the Pentagon why it was so named. Perhaps, killing others (enemy or not) is a patriotic act for the Americans.