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WASHINGTON: A leading US Senator has indicated Congress would support American military action against Pakistan amid growing clamor in Washington for a punitive response against a two-timing ally even as ties between the two countries grow more toxic by the hour.

While a television journalist openly described Pakistan’s allegedly proxy attack on the US embassy in Kabul as an "act of war" to foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar’s face, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told a Sunday talk show that "The sovereign nation of Pakistan is engaging in hostile acts against the United States and our ally Afghanistan that must cease."

"I will leave it up to the experts, but if the experts believe that we need to elevate our response, they will have a lot of bipartisan support on Capitol Hill," Graham, a South Carolina senator who serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee, told "Fox News Sunday" in remarks that were seen as a call for military strikes against Pakistan.

The sharp escalation of US rhetoric came even as Pakistan defiantly said it would not take any action against the so-called Haqqani group, which was described as a "veritable fighting arm" of the Pakistani spy agency ISI by a top US general, and has been held responsible for the several terrorist attacks on US and its allies in Afghanistan. Following a meeting of Pakistani army core commanders over the weekend, Pakistan indicated that acting against the Haqqani group would be against its national interests which involved establishing a foothold in Afghanistan after the US withdrawal as part of its "strategic depth" strategy, mainly to forestall Indian influence.

But a growing number of western and even Pakistani analysts have said such a strategy is foolhardy given Afghan revulsion of Pakistan and the Talibanist worldview that led to them hosting Al Qaeda, leading to 9/11. Some of them are now concluding that the Pakistani army and ISI’s terrorist policy has the sanction of the civilian government and are demanding stronger action against Islamabad from US and its allies.

The influential writer Christopher Hitchens, among them, invoked Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 to describe ISI as "the the most adroit double-dealing profiteer from terrorism in the entire region." Maintaining that Pakistan was in breach of post 9/11 U.N resolution 1368 on terrorism, which states that those found to be "supporting or harboring the perpetrators, organizers and sponsors of these acts will be held equally accountable," Hitchens said Pakistan risked being identified as a terrorist nation.

"This indictment would easily stretch to cover another gross violation of international law and diplomatic immunity, in that the ISI was also found culpable in the destruction of the Indian Embassy in Kabul in July 2008," Hitchen reminded Washington, which did not stop bankrolling Pakistan despite multiple terrorist attacks on Indian interests over the years.

Amid such scathing commentary, Pakistan’s foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar, in interviews to television networks, defiantly and obdurately stuck to the Pakistani military’s pro-forma denials and its script that it will go to any extent to preserve its perceived equity and strategic interests in Afghanistan, even if it meant going up against US and its allies, and international isolation.

Seeking cover against US anger, Pakistan also took public comfort in the visit of a senior Chinese leader to Islamabad and played up its proposed energy pipeline with Iran. While some analysts see this as Islamabad’s ploy to raise its price for eventually being bought out by US, there is growing recognition and weariness in Washington that Pakistan is playing America for suckers. Hitchens said in his Slate commentary that at the very least Pakistan must lose access to US Treasury.

Lisa Curtis, a former CIA analyst with the Heritage Foundation, recommended a graduated series of responses in the event that Pakistan maintains its defiant attitude and refuses to take action against the perpetrators of the attacks on the US embassy. Among them: Suspend all assistance programs to Pakistan, including civilian aid, and reverse US withdrawal plans from Afghanistan.