Why Do We Tolerate Pakistan?

The biggest revelation from the WikiLeaks document dump so far has been the Pakistan intelligence service’s support of the Taliban. Why do we tolerate Pakistan’s duplicity? “Pakistan is our most important ally because, after all, that is where most of the terrorists are,” former presidential adviser Bruce Riedel tells Middle East Progress. “But Pakistan is also our most difficult ally, because over the last three decades it has nurtured many of these terrorist groups.” In order to stabilize Pakistan, he suggests increasing trade with the country instead of foreign aid. He’s also encouraged by the current government: “Bear in mind that Pakistan has had a history of failed and corrupt civilian governments being replaced by corrupt military dictators. That pattern, we hope, is being broken. The government that Pakistan has now may be on course to be the first ever to actually serve out a full term in office between elections. It has also undergone a very significant change in the last six months; Pakistan has changed its constitution to move most executive power out of the hands of the president’s office and into the hands of the prime minister’s office. And that’s important because the prime minister is elected directly by the people.”