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Frustrations Grow as U.S. and Pakistan Fail to Mend Ties

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http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/28/w...n-fail-to-mend-ties.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp

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WASHINGTON — When Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met Pakistan’s president at the NATO summit meeting in Chicago last week, the two spent most of the meeting talking politics, and Mrs. Clinton was nothing if not blunt.

President Asif Ali Zardari complained about the difficulties of unifying Pakistan’s fractious political parties to support a more aggressive campaign against extremists and noted it was an election year in both countries.

“We don’t have the resources or control over these groups,” he said, referring to militants based in Pakistan’s borderlands. He added, “We’re backed into a corner because you haven’t apologized” for a NATO attack in November that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers at an outpost on the border with Afghanistan.

Reflecting the Obama administration’s mounting frustration, Mrs. Clinton told him that the only way countries have defeated insurgencies like the ones threatening Pakistan and its neighbor was by forging national unity and exercising political will.

“It’s going to take leadership,” she told a subdued Mr. Zardari, according to officials from both countries familiar with the hourlong meeting at McCormick Place last Sunday. “It’s going to take leadership from you and others.”

Mr. Zardari’s visit to the summit meeting — after an 11th-hour invitation intended as a conciliatory gesture — went well for neither the United States nor Pakistan. It not only failed to resolve a six-month deadlock over the transportation of supplies to Afghanistan, but it also underscored the poisonous distrust and political chasms in an uneasy alliance that is central to the Obama administration’s plan to end the war in Afghanistan.

“You have to look at the meeting in context of whether it’s worth the investment having Pakistan as a partner,” one Obama administration official said bitingly. The best that that official could say of Mrs. Clinton’s meeting with Mr. Zardari was that it was “not a total waste” since she was able to deliver such a pointed message.

Far from moving toward some kind of easing of tension, relations have only worsened since then. On three days last week, American drones fired missiles at what were thought to be insurgent hide-outs in northwestern Pakistan, ending a brief lull heading into the NATO summit meeting and ignoring demands by Pakistan’s Parliament to end the strikes altogether. And on Wednesday, a court in Pakistan convicted a doctor who helped the C.I.A. in the search for Osama bin Laden, sentencing him to 33 years in prison for treason.


The next day the Senate approved a new cut of $33 million in American military assistance to Pakistan, $1 million for each year of his sentence.

The failed diplomacy of the last week highlighted the inability of both countries to repair a relationship that was badly frayed by the secret raid that killed Bin Laden in May of last year and then was nearly ruptured by the NATO attack in November. It has raised questions over whether even a more limited security relationship between the two countries is even possible.

“It’s an up-and-down relationship,” Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”

Officials from both countries expressed a desire to resolve their differences, but it appeared that both were drifting ever farther apart. “We need to scale back expectations for each other,” Sherry Rehman, Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States, said in an interview.

For Mr. Zardari, the visit to Chicago was a political disaster at home, exposing the increasingly embattled president to blistering criticism. In a clear diplomatic slight, President Obama refused to hold a meeting with him, speaking to him for only a few minutes on the way to a group photograph of the world leaders who came to Chicago to map out an end to the war in Afghanistan.

While Mr. Obama later expressed support for “a successful, stable Pakistan,” he added, “I don’t want to paper over the differences there.”

In Pakistan, Imran Khan, a former cricket star who has become one of the most popular opposition leaders, declared the visit a disgrace to the country, and accused the United States and NATO of ignoring the demands of its Parliament and its own sacrifices in the fight against terrorists. “This is not our war,” Mr. Khan said of Afghanistan, “so let’s get out of it.”

The tensions over Afghanistan, over Pakistan’s perceived unwillingness to strike against insurgents within its borders and over the continued American drone strikes have resisted a year of efforts to ease them. Mrs. Clinton has now met Mr. Zardari three times since the Bin Laden raid; after the first two she had expressed hope that the relationship was “back on track,” as she put it in Islamabad in October.

After Pakistan’s Parliament completed a review of relations with the United States in April, Mrs. Clinton and others in the State Department expected that they could reach a new understanding on security cooperation, which has been more or less delayed since November. A series of American delegations visited officials in Pakistan — led by Deputy Secretary of State Thomas R. Nides and Marc Grossman, the administration’s special envoy — only to find Pakistan changing its demands in response to domestic politics and, some said, Mr. Zardari’s weakened position.

The Pakistani Parliament demanded an unconditional apology for the November attack and an immediate end to the C.I.A. drone strikes, but it also paved the way for a reopening of NATO supply lines through Pakistan, though at a cost that the administration and members of Congress viewed as extortion.

A brazen attack on Kabul and other Afghan cities in April by the Haqqani network, Islamic militants operating from a base in Pakistan, simply hardened the administration’s stance, especially on the apology, something that also would be politically risky for Mr. Obama’s re-election campaign.

Even so, a team of American specialists remained in Islamabad to try to hammer out an agreement to reopen the supply routes. Pakistan, stung by the suspension of American military assistance last year, demanded a fee of $5,000 for each truck that crossed its territory from the port in Karachi to Afghanistan. Before the November attack, NATO had paid $250.

The Pakistanis also asked for an indemnity waiver in case American cargo is damaged, for some repairs to the port of Karachi, and for road improvements near the border crossings, the senior American official said.

Before the summit meeting in Chicago, the two sides appeared to narrow the difference, with Pakistan asking for $3,000 and the United States offering to pay up to $1,000. In hopes of finishing the deal, NATO extended a late invitation to Mr. Zardari to attend, but even the narrow issue of supply routes proved too divisive to resolve.

By the time Mrs. Clinton sat down with Mr. Zardari last Sunday, the administration had lowered its expectations. Tactically, the officials said, she pressed him to tell the NATO leaders that he was committed to resolving the dispute over the transit of supplies, which he did in a closed meeting the next day.

Most of Mr. Zardari’s meeting with Mrs. Clinton was spent on his difficulties unifying the country’s political blocs. He responded defensively. “Zardari made it clear it’s an election season where he is, and he knows it is here, too,” one administration official said.

Mrs. Clinton suggested specific ways to overcome the differences over counterterrorism operations — and to sell them to politicians in Pakistan. The officials declined to discuss those ideas, even on the condition of anonymity. The meeting ended without any clear commitments.

“The secretary,” the official said, “sought to make this very clear: Are you guys ready to move and get your whole leadership on the same page? Because sometimes it looks to us like you’re not.”

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Few points I want to make.
a) US was paying 250$ per truck and not zero as claimed by some.
b) I was not believing the news that they have cut 33 million dollars, I guess they should give it to doctors family at-least he will get something for supporting the noble cause.
c) Negotiations from 5000$ came down to 3000$ and US was at 1000$ so 2000$ main nakki ho sakti hai.
 
Actually the US seems to have called Pakistani bluff. Pakistan closed the NATO supplies and nothing really happened. The drones have not only continued but in fact have intensified. It's raining drones now. Another incident of the Pakistani Army punching above its weight and getting its bluff called instead. :)
 
The problem in Pakistan is and has been political stableity, there has been no party in power for more than five years.
 
Pakistan should simply tell the US to take a hike. Pay $5000 or go the long way home, buddy.
 
Actually the US seems to have called Pakistani bluff. Pakistan closed the NATO supplies and nothing really happened. The drones have not only continued but in fact have intensified. It's raining drones now. Another incident of the Pakistani Army punching above its weight and getting its bluff called instead. :)

A key part of negotiating is knowing the opposition's red lines and breaking point.. Pakistani diplomats seem to be totally inept on both counts..
 
We Pakistanis want these relationships to go further tensed and in the end Pakistan reject aid itself( which is stoped)whatever Zardari want. He want to hike the price of drones attacks too.
 
We Pakistanis want these relationships to go further tensed and in the end Pakistan reject aid itself( which is stoped)whatever Zardari want. He want to hike the price of drones attacks too.

Honestly speaking, I as an Indian want to see the same.

Pakistan should simply tell the US to take a hike. Pay $5000 or go the long way home, buddy.

They already came down from 5000$ to 3000$.
 
Honestly speaking, I as an Indian want to see the same.

Perhaps that would be the only consolation to the souls of those of ours who died at the hands of these savages, from the sikhs of chittisinghpura to the innocents of the CST.

As you sow, so shall you reap. They don't call Karma a bit*ch without any reason.
 
The indian "Pakistan experts" have arrived with their opinions
 
Zadari knows well he is done but even then he does not want to go down as a sore loser. So whatever resolve he took at the summit was not for Pakistan's interest but his own "this is election year". I think the americans understand this as well and their best bet would be to look at the post election government. They are not going to place their bets on zadari anymore.
Nawaz sharif is already sucking up to both the Americans and the Indians( americans i can understand but Indians....seriously?), as for Imran clearly his stance and agenda has always been against the WOT to begin with, if he gets into power, things could further get tensed between the US and Pakistan.

The indian "Pakistan experts" have arrived with their opinions

What else to expect from the experts, since they are experts in every Pakistani related matter.
 
The indian "Pakistan experts" have arrived with their opinions

It shouldn't be a surprise if many Indians know more about Pakistan than the Pakistanis themselves. Take a look at @1:15 onwards.

These are Pakistanis who don't know which of the two states of Pakistan have a coastline:

[video] GEO Ajooba- 15 Jan 2012- (Astola Island) - YouTube [/video]

Still surprised that many Indians know more about your country than your countrymen themselves? ;)

or is it that your frustration has got the better of you? :)

Now shall we come back to topic?
 
It shouldn't be a surprise if many Indians know more about Pakistan than the Pakistanis themselves. Take a look at @1:40 onwards.

These are Pakistanis who don't know which of the two states of Pakistan have a coastline:

[video] GEO Ajooba- 15 Jan 2012- (Astola Island) - YouTube [/video]

Still surprised that many Indians know more about your country than your countrymen themselves? ;)

or is it that your frustration has got the better of you? :)
Frustrated? No, I'm not the one one who's gotten banned multiple times from this fourm yet keeps coming back :)
 
Pakistan stands isolated in the US capital as the Obama administration joins lawmakers in condemning the conviction of a Pakistani doctor who helped the CIA trace Osama bin Laden.

America’s two top foreign policy makers — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Senator John Kerry — also are denouncing a tribal court’s decision to jail Dr Shakil Afridi for 33 years. Both are considered “Pakistan friendly” in a country where anti-Pakistan feelings run high.

Secretary Clinton called the judgment “unjust and unwarranted” and Senator Kerry said even though he believed in “the importance of the US-Pakistan strategic relationship, realities like these make that effort more difficult”.

Senator Kerry played a key role in the passage of a $7.5 billion, five-year aid package for Pakistan in 2009.

On Thursday, a Senate panel deducted $33 million from a proposed assistance to Pakistan – $1 million for each year Dr Afridi will spend in jail.

And a New York congressman, who leads the House Homeland Security Committee, blamed the Obama administration for identifying Dr Afridi to Pakistani authorities.

“They put him there. They disclosed his identity,” Congressman Peter King told Fox News. In January, US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta told an American television channel it was Dr Afridi who had collected DNA in an effort to help locate the Al Qaeda leader.

At a Thursday night diplomatic dinner, some former US officials also endorsed the view, saying the Obama administration should have moved Dr Afridi to Afghanistan soon after the May 2 air raid that killed Bin Laden.

“We regret both the fact that he was convicted and the severity of his sentence,” Secretary Clinton told a joint press conference with New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully. She pointed out that Dr Afridi “was instrumental in taking down one of the world’s most wanted murderers. That was clearly in Pakistan’s interest, as well as ours and the rest of the world’s”.

“We are raising his case and we will continue to do so because we think that his treatment is unjust and unwarranted,” she said.

Senator Kerry said Americans would have “great difficulty” in understanding the verdict, one year after the United States had found and killed the most notorious terrorist in modern history hiding on Pakistani soil.

“The most visible action being taken to find out how he came to be in Pakistan is the conviction in a Pakistani court” of the physician who helped the United States identify Osama bin Laden, he said.

“The irony is, the only person being punished is the person who helped the United States achieve justice for the murder of thousands of Americans,” he said.

A senior Pakistani diplomat who spent Thursday afternoon on Capitol Hill noted that wherever he went, he confronted a “bipartisan anger at Pakistan from very angry congressmen and women”.

The US lawmakers, he pointed out, “are not interested in our arguments, even though we tried to argue that no country allows foreign governments, even if friendly, to engage spies”.

They pointed out that in 1987 the United States sentenced Jonathan Pollard to life for spying for Israel, even though Israel is America’s closest ally.

Pakistani diplomats, who spent the last few days on the Hill, said the Obama administration was trying hard to prevent further cuts in the US aid to Pakistan.

“But the lawmakers seem very upset over the continued closure of Nato supply routes to Afghanistan,” said one of them.

“The administration is unable to hold down Republicans, who after this weekend’s Nato summit in Chicago, seem convinced Pakistan should be written off for not opening the routes and for acting against US interests.”

Other diplomats also noted that no friends on the Hill were willing to speak for Pakistan.

“Isolate Pakistan seems to be the new plan,” said one of them. “US-Pakistan relationship is entering a very bad phase.”

The diplomats pointed out that the Pakistan Embassy in Washington had warned Islamabad not to delay the reopening of supply routes but the advice was ignored.

Pakistan stands isolated in Washington
 
Frustrated? No, I'm not the one one who's gotten multiple times from this fourm yet keeps coming back :)

That would be like saying that since Pakistani Army has got thrashed by the Indian Army in many wars, time and again, Pakistanis should stop watching Indian movies.

Pakistanis hate India, still they watch Indian movies and serials.

Pakistanis hate America, still they watch American movies.

Why can't we, then, have some fun at a Pakistani Website? ;)

You should really stop hitting below the belt, my man!
 
That would be like saying that since Pakistani Army has got thrashed by the Indian Army in many wars, time and again, Pakistanis should stop watching Indian movies.

Pakistanis hate India, still they watch Indian movies and serials.

Pakistanis hate America, still they watch American movies.

Why can't we, then, have some fun at a Pakistani Website? ;)
If you call coming back to a forum after one keeps being banned fun then you keep doing that ;)
 
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