While India seeks to bring the perpetrators of the Mumbai carnage to book, there should be no illusions about the degree to which other nations will whole-heartedly support the Indian expectation from Islamabad. The US dependence on the Pakistani military goes well beyond the presence of its troops in Afghanistan and the proposed ‘surge’ strategy in the Obama watch. The CIA-ISI linkages are embedded in a murky past and Indian expectations from the US will have to be tempered accordingly.