MICHELE NORRIS, Host:
And as NPR's Jackie Northam reports, Zardari isn't getting much relief while he's here.
JACKIE NORTHAM: Brian Katulis, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, says the attack sent a clear signal to the Obama administration that despite efforts to curb militancy, there's a serious undercurrent of extremism that has grown and metastasized in Pakistan.
BRIAN KATULIS: The concern of infiltration of those extremist voices in Pakistani's security services, a country that has anywhere from 70 to a hundred nuclear weapons, is the thing that keeps many people in Washington up at night.
NORTHAM: Security and counterterrorism efforts are among the issues discussed today by Presidents Zardari and Obama before the Holbrooke service. But Katulis says Zardari isn't the best man for that discussion because he doesn't hold much sway.
KATULIS: The meeting between President Obama and Zardari is an example of head-of-state diplomacy at its most complicated. Zardari, as the head of civilian government, really doesn't have as much power over those security issues as do Ashfaq Kayani, the head of the Pakistani military, or Ahmad Shuja Pasha who's the head of the Inter-Services Intelligence.
NORTHAM: Jamie Metzl, the executive vice president of the Asia Society, says Pakistan needs to do better to justify U.S. support.
JAMIE METZL: We've spent $20 billion in Pakistan since 9/11, huge amounts of military aid; lately, more civilian-focused aid, and the situation in Pakistan seems to have gone from bad to worse.
NORTHAM: Kamran Bokhari, with the intelligence firm STRATFOR, says there are two schools of thought in Washington over how to deal with Pakistan. One is that Pakistan is playing a double game with Washington.
KAMRAN BOKHARI: This view says we need to be able to sustain the pressure on Pakistan, they can definitely do more, they're just not doing it. On the other hand, there are those who say Pakistan is already quite weakened. So if we demand more from the Pakistanis, what that means is that there is a good chance that it could further undermine stability within Pakistan.
NORTHAM: Jackie Northam, NPR News, Washington.