Divorce for the U.S. and Pakistan

I just read an article about the very sensible outlook of former Pakistani Ambassador to the U.S., Husain Haqqani.  In 65 years of trying to be allies, the U.S. and Paksitan have failed miserably, says Mr. Haqqani. Right now, at a time when the U.S. is funneling billions of aid to Pakistan, three in four Pakistani people consider America an enemy.

We sell or give the Pakistanis fighter jets and modern weaponry. Their military and intelligence agencies work actively against our interests.  For years, they harbored Osama Bin Laden down the road from their equivalent of our 'West Point' military training academy.  They harbor the Taliban,  and look the other way as the Taliban conduct cross border raids into Afghanistan.  We use our UAV spy aircraft to seek out the Taliban in their Pakistani hiding places and end up recklessly dropping 'smart' bombs on innocent Pakistani civilians. Yes, sometimes we hit the right targets, but when we miss, it does serious damage to our relationship with the Pakistani people. They hate us. Should that be a surprise? If the Pakistanis were flying UAVs over our cities and dropping bombs around us, how would we react?

Pakistan is a very dangerous country.  It is a Muslim nation of nearly 200 million people that possesses nuclear weapons. It suffers from runaway population growth. It can barely feed its own people.  It has a long standing, unresolved conflict with the even bigger nation next door, India.

For decades, the U.S. has tried to have it both ways with Pakistan and India, whose natural enmity is based mostly on religious differences. As a consequence, America does not enjoy a comfortable relationship with either country.

Former Ambassador Haqqani suggests that we should drop the pretentions. The U.S. and Pakistan should 'divorce' and learn to get along, understanding that there are many areas where cooperation makes sense, and also some areas where we must acept that our interests are not going to coincide.  Seems like that's the kind of relationship we already enjoy with China and Russia.  We get along reasonably well with Russia and China these days, even though we have no illusions that they will ever reinvent themselves in our image.

While we're getting practical about Pakistan, let's focus on keeping their nuclear capability out of the hands of those who would really like to hurt us.

Here is an article reporting on Ambassador Haqqani's practical assessment of how best to manage America's relationship with Pakistan.

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/23/13428824-us-pakistan-should-divorce-ex-ambassador-to-washington-says?lite