When the United States found out that Pakistan had been providing a safe haven to Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad (and let's not pretend that they didn't provide OBL safe haven) the Great Fiction came undone.
The Great Fiction was that Pakistan is an ally of the United States. The Great Fiction was that US "engagement" with Pakistan is a functional policy. The Great Fiction was that Pakistan is anything but a failed state with nuclear weapons.
Pakistan (as noted in Grace Wyler's excellent interview with CFR's Daniel Markey) is expanding its nuclear arsenal rapidly. The fear is that one of those weapons will end up in the hands of terrorist organizations, which will in turn detonate one of those weapons in London or Berlin or Washington or New York.
The argument for continuing the US policy of "engagement" with Pakistan basically boils down to this: We have to, so we can keep an eye on the nukes. Christopher Hitchens, in an impassioned piece for Vanity Fair, argues that to continue the policy of engagement with Pakistan is delusional, shameful and ultimately self-defeating. He writes:
If we ever ceased to swallow our pride, so I am incessantly told in Washington, then the Pakistani oligarchy might behave even more abysmally than it already does, and the situation deteriorate even further. This stale and superficial argument ignores the awful historical fact that, each time the Pakistani leadership did get worse, or behave worse, it was handsomely rewarded by the United States. We have been the enablers of every stage of that wretched states counter-evolution, to the point where it is a serious regional menace and an undisguised ally of our worst enemy, as well as the sworn enemy of some of our best allies. How could it be worse if we shifted our alliance and instead embraced India, our only rival in scale as a multi-ethnic and multi-religious democracy, and a nation that contains nearly as many Muslims as Pakistan? How could it be worse if we listened to the brave Afghans, like their former intelligence chief Amrullah Saleh, who have been telling us for years that we are fighting the war in the wrong country?
If we continue to deny or avoid this inescapable fact, then we really are dishonoring, as well as further endangering, our exemplary young volunteers. Why was the raid on Abbottabad so rightly called daring? Because it had to be conducted under the radar of the Pakistani Air Force, which scrambled its jets and would have brought the Black Hawks down if it could. That this is true is bad enough in all conscience. That we should still be submitting ourselves to lectures and admonitions from General Kayani is beyond shameful.
Read more: Pakistan: a failed and treacherous state
The Great Fiction was that Pakistan is an ally of the United States. The Great Fiction was that US "engagement" with Pakistan is a functional policy. The Great Fiction was that Pakistan is anything but a failed state with nuclear weapons.
Pakistan (as noted in Grace Wyler's excellent interview with CFR's Daniel Markey) is expanding its nuclear arsenal rapidly. The fear is that one of those weapons will end up in the hands of terrorist organizations, which will in turn detonate one of those weapons in London or Berlin or Washington or New York.
The argument for continuing the US policy of "engagement" with Pakistan basically boils down to this: We have to, so we can keep an eye on the nukes. Christopher Hitchens, in an impassioned piece for Vanity Fair, argues that to continue the policy of engagement with Pakistan is delusional, shameful and ultimately self-defeating. He writes:
If we ever ceased to swallow our pride, so I am incessantly told in Washington, then the Pakistani oligarchy might behave even more abysmally than it already does, and the situation deteriorate even further. This stale and superficial argument ignores the awful historical fact that, each time the Pakistani leadership did get worse, or behave worse, it was handsomely rewarded by the United States. We have been the enablers of every stage of that wretched states counter-evolution, to the point where it is a serious regional menace and an undisguised ally of our worst enemy, as well as the sworn enemy of some of our best allies. How could it be worse if we shifted our alliance and instead embraced India, our only rival in scale as a multi-ethnic and multi-religious democracy, and a nation that contains nearly as many Muslims as Pakistan? How could it be worse if we listened to the brave Afghans, like their former intelligence chief Amrullah Saleh, who have been telling us for years that we are fighting the war in the wrong country?
If we continue to deny or avoid this inescapable fact, then we really are dishonoring, as well as further endangering, our exemplary young volunteers. Why was the raid on Abbottabad so rightly called daring? Because it had to be conducted under the radar of the Pakistani Air Force, which scrambled its jets and would have brought the Black Hawks down if it could. That this is true is bad enough in all conscience. That we should still be submitting ourselves to lectures and admonitions from General Kayani is beyond shameful.
Read more: Pakistan: a failed and treacherous state
