DAILY BEAST: … America’s relationship with Pakistan is tortured and complex. On the one hand, Washington has been very generous to Pakistan this century. Since 9/11 the U.S. has disbursed more than $25 billion in military and economic aid to Islamabad. The military aid includes 18 F-16 jet fighters, 500 AMRAAM air-to-air missiles, 6 C-130 transport aircraft, 20 Cobra attack helicopters, and a Perry class frigate. According to the Congressional Research Service, about half the aid was delivered during George Bush’s presidency and about half by Barack Obama. No other country except Israel has received so much American aid since 2001.
On the other hand, Pakistan and America are adversaries in Afghanistan. In many ways we are fighting a proxy war in Afghanistan. The United States, the U.N., NATO, and troops from more than 40 countries back the legitimately elected Kabul government led by Hamid Karzai. Pakistan pays lip service to the Karzai government but provides key assistance to its enemy, the Afghan Taliban. The Pakistani intelligence service, ISI, shelters the Taliban leadership in Quetta, Karachi, and Waziristan, trains its fighters, and helps it plan attacks on Afghan government and NATO targets. Interrogations of thousands of captured Taliban fighters by NATO show that Pakistan’s support is essential to the success of the insurgency. Senior American officials have characterized the insurgents as taking direction from the ISI.
America is also fighting a drone war against al Qaeda targets and associated movement inside Pakistani territory despite the explicit request of the Pakistani Parliament and Foreign Ministry that they cease flying. A drone strike in Pakistan this month apparently killed the Belgian-Tunisian terrorist who mentored and trained the French-Algerian man who murdered six people in Toulouse, France this spring. Moez Garsallaoui was an al Qaeda operative who trained Mohamed Merah during a visit to Pakistan in 2010… (more)
