The attraction within the Pakistani government between officials who are considered to be aligned with the US and others who are spiritually and politically allied with the Taliban and extremist forces has come to a head following the death of Osama bin Laden. Pakistan has gone from being America’s number one ally in our outright war on terror to perhaps the most disloyal and unstable nation to which the US has ever handed $4.5 billion a year.
In fact, that represents the largest share of US government dollars given directly to any foreign government last year, and Pakistan was the recipient. But despite being our nominal military ally, Pakistan has become the number one issue in American foreign policy. Pakistan is a country pulled in two directions: most of its officials to the United States, a select few to terrorist groups, and the United States is giving lots of money to all of them.
Senator John Kerry, in Pakistan as the government’s envoy, spoke to the New York Times about the need for both countries to make “fundamental decisions” about their partnership. A nation cannot commit to being “America’s number one ally in the war on terror” and then have elements of its intelligence force harbor Osama bin Laden. In fact, it is very likely that members of General Pasha’s own intelligence agency, the Pakistani ISI, or Interservice Intelligence Directorate, knew of bin Laden’s residence outside Islamabad and actively harbored or at least tolerated his presence. existence there.
The absolute top officials of Pakistan’s civilian government, armed with nuclear weapons, realize the inherent instability of allowing terrorists to get too close; these Pakistani officials are almost always good friends with the United States. But many high- and mid-ranking military and intelligence officials do not harbor the same sympathies for the West as those who spiritually side with the United States in its quest for superiority over Islamic extremism.
And while we have uncovered no evidence of connection in bin Laden’s hoard, it has been accepted within the beltway that elements of Pakistan’s military and intelligence services knew of bin Laden’s hideout in Abottobad or even harbored or financed it. The New York Times wrote Sunday that US intelligence “believes that the top leaders of [Pakistan] was genuinely shocked at bin Laden’s whereabouts… But they have strong suspicions… [Pakistani] military… and the ISI, the main intelligence service, were aware [of bin Laden]Hardly an alliance worth billions of dollars.
One of the ‘big sticks’ hanging over Pakistanis’ heads is the prospect that, within the trove of information and files found by US forces at the bin Laden compound that is currently being reviewed at CIA headquarters , there is strong evidence that the Pakistanis are complicit in the bin Laden cover-up. No matter at what level of their government or intelligence services, any specific evidence of this would be horrible for Pakistan. It would almost certainly mean a loss of US military aid, which would be a terrible blow to a country that, no matter how gently it treats some terrorists, desperately needs US money to prevent jihadis working within its own borders from destabilizing to your government.
Political differences between members of the Pakistani government and military have not led to a difference of opinion on US money; more than $20 billion, in fact, since September 11, 2001. There are many within the American intelligence community who argue that bin Laden may have been kidnapped by elements of the Pakistani ISI simply because his absence was an excuse to receive more US military money.
Either way, it’s time for the United States, understandably vilified for frequently taking unnecessarily hard lines with other countries, to finally take a hard line that it amply deserves. Pakistan must stand on the clear and uniform side of Enlightenment values and clearly renounce the medieval beliefs of al-Qaeda and the Taliban, in all branches of its military and civilian government and from top to bottom.
This is not a Bush-style ultimatum of “us or them”: it is a simple choice between democracy and autocracy. The main Pakistani suits must decide which world they will ally themselves with: the world of the United States and democracy, of the Arab Spring and its youth who encourage secularization and freedom throughout the Middle East, or the religiously totalitarian world that ultimately Once a month had been reduced to a dream in the head of a grey-bearded man, hiding in a high-walled compound on the outskirts of Islamabad?
Abraham Lincoln once said that “A house divided cannot stand.” Despite the cultural differences between our countries, the Pakistan government as a whole would do well to heed the words of this Western nation’s greatest wartime leader. It is time for the leaders of that nation to stop playing chicken with the United States. It is a time to choose. They must clean house or face an uncertain and unstable future.
Copyright © Capital City Free Press
