It has been a tumultuous and turbulent relationship at best. I am referring to the relationship between the United States and Pakistan. Before we get into the current nitty-gritty of the relationship let us take a look back at the history of the US-Pakistan relationship.
The relationship initially started to warm as Pakistan’s arch rival India adopted the socialist model of development and started to lean towards the Soviet bloc while maintaining an official stance of neutrality under the Non Aligned Movement (NAM). This automatically made Pakistan a natural ally of the US in the then prevailing Cold War paradigm. The relationship warmed even more during the 1971 India-Pakistan war which resulted in the secession of East Pakistan to form Bangladesh. The Indians signed a 20 year Treaty of Friendship with the Soviet Union which included all sorts of economic and military assistance between the two countries. The US was naturally alarmed by this treaty and the creation of Bangladesh which it suspected would lead to India’s hegemony in the South Asian region under the aegis of Soviet support.
This US fear was compounded multiple fold in the last 1970s as the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan with massive force. The Americans fearing a Pakistan sandwiched between a Soviet controlled Afghanistan and Soviet friendly India pulled out all stops and used Pakistan as a springboard to train and finance Islamic mujahideen (Warriors of God) to fight Soviet forces in Afghanistan. During this period from the late 70s to the late 80s till the Soviets left Afghanistan, Pakistan became a staunch American ally reaping tremendous benefits in the form American civilian as well as military aid.
As soon as the Soviets left Afghanistan, the US-Pakistan relationship took a big U-turn and sank to all time low levels as the US pressed sanctions on Pakistan for what it suspected to be experiments and research for getting nuclear weapons. The US knew that Pakistan was working for the development of nuclear weapons but turned a blind eye during the Soviet-Afghan war. This sudden turnabout by the US did not sit well with the Pakistani public in general and led to a fervent rise in anti-Americanism in Pakistan.
Fast Forward 10 years to 2001 and the tragic 9/11 bombings of the World Trade Centre in New York. The US invades Afghanistan and once again needs the help of its ‘old friend’ Pakistan in order to target Taliban and Al-Qaeda targets in neighbouring Afghanistan. Of course, Pakistan lets the US use its military and air bases and other infrastructure including land supply routes for American forces to fight in Afghanistan in lieu of American aid. This time the aid is much more than during the Soviet invasion and runs into billions of dollars in financial and military aid.
Fast Forward another 10 years to 2011. The US has by almost any stretch of imagination failed in reining in Afghanistan (aptly known as the Graveyard of Empires) and transform into a civilized society of the 21st century. The US has also lost its once immense goodwill and financial clout fighting two wars and crashing its economy in the global financial crisis. Unrelenting unmanned drone attacks by the US in the border areas of Pakistan-Afghanistan has added fuel to the fire of anti-Americanism in Pakistan. A Pew research poll conducted a few months ago showed that only 12% of the Pakistani public held any favourable views of the US. After the drone attack in late November, it seems an even lesser number holds such views.
The Pakistani public is caught between a rock and a hard place. An overwhelming majority hates America and feels that only the army, the bedrock institution responsible for making Pakistan stay in one piece can make things right. It is globally acknowledged that the nominally civilian government is just that –nominal, and can take no concrete decisions on any matter of significance without a nod from the Army HQ in Rawalpindi. The army realizes that no matter what happens, they cannot survive for long without American support in their long term “undeclared war” against giant India which outguns them in all aspects from economic as well as military aspects. The Americans on the other hand know that they don’t stand a chance of getting anywhere their desired targets in Afghanistan without active support from Pakistan.
The recent strike by a NATO drone which killed 24 Pakistani soldiers near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border has infuriated the Pakistani public further and also managed to infuriate the Pakistani administration which replied to the attack by stopping all transit routes for supplies to ISAF forces in Afghanistan. The Pakistani government also ordered the Americans to leave the airbase in Baluchistan province that was used to launch such drone attacks. The US in retaliation has threatened to stop all aid to Pakistan. All this has no doubt made the already deteriorating US-Pakistan relationship an awful mess.
The once Friends with Benefits have now turned to Frenemies. Let us hope that it does not get worse than that.
