The US-Pakistan Relationship: Friend or Foe?

    For a long term relationship to last, trust needs to be there. But in the case of the American-Pakistan partnership trust has not been something that was meant to be there. The Americans changed their interaction with Pakistan when the Iron Curtain fell and they started becoming Pro-India but they later had to change this position of theirs due to the 9/11 terrorist attacks which resulted in the US declaring war on Afghanistan.

    Afghanistan was a poor third world country that was far away from them and which had witnessed numerous political events in the past decades. But now that they had invaded the landlocked country it became important for the US to strike a partnership(short-term) with Pakistan in order to prevent terrorists from entering Pakistan and escaping the 'American Wrath'. But that was never meant to be.

    Though the partnership was struck but Pakistan under the dictatorial regime allowed the Taliban to enter and hide in Pakistan. The Pakistani Government thought that they could now get the best of both worlds. They would terrorize India using the vast number of terrorists who had arrived in Pakistan and also by threatening India by the weapons gifted by Uncle Sam. But in doing so they did not realize that they were on the wrong road and had to change.

    The result: Pakistan was soon being regarded as a 'terrorist state' with more than 80% of the global attacks being traced back to them. The Americans could not do anything. They could not attack Pakistan as it had got its own weapons of mass-destruction which ironically had been acquired by Pakistan as the US turned a blind eye to the Pakistani Nuclear Program.

    Now the Americans are in a tight spot. Years of bad foreign policy have come back to haunt them. The US does not have a clear way out to get out of this mess that they have got themselves in. All they can do is wait. Wait for the time to pass and for the region to become stable. Only then can they decide on their next course of action to deal with the 'Terrorist State'.