'We have made a major turn with our relationship with Pakistan under President Obama,' Holbrooke told reporters in Karachi Wednesday. Time and again, he tried to delineate the differences between the Obama administration and the Bush era.

He said his very presence in Karachi demonstrated that drone attacks and the hunt for Al Qaeda were not the only American foreign policy activities in the country.

But Abbasi's reaction, which apparently reflects the feelings of about 25 percent of the population according to a recent poll, demonstrated just how tough the job is.

For all the administration's efforts to call attention to the non-military ties that would bind the two countries, America is still being judged by many Pakistanis as an uncaring behemoth whose sole concern is finding Osama bin Laden, no matter the cost in civilian Pakistani lives.

McHale Wednesday recounted the conversation with Abbasi: 'He told me that we were no longer human beings because our goal was to eliminate other humans. He spoke English very well, and he said that thousands of innocent people have been killed because we are trying to find Osama bin Laden.'

McHale said she argued her points with Abbasi, points that would appear logical to many Americans, but that often fail to impress over in Pakistan: Al Qaeda and bin Laden attacked the US Sep 11, 2001; the war in Afghanistan, unlike the war in Iraq, is blessed by the United Nations, and is a multinational effort; and America will always do whatever it takes to defend itself.