The Americans are being willfully “thickheaded” in their relations with Pakistan, said The Nation in an editorial. Our government has a few reasonable demands: End the drone strikes that keep killing our civilians, apologize for the unprovoked massacre of 24 of our soldiers in November, and hand over “the long-delayed payment” for expenses we’ve incurred in the fight against militants. Once all that is done, we can reopen the truck routes to Afghanistan that the U.S. so desperately needs to supply and, eventually, withdraw its troops. Yet Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has labeled our stance “extortion,” and Republicans in Congress are grumbling that Pakistan is more enemy than ally. They cite the jailing of the Pakistani doctor who helped find Osama bin Laden, as well as persistent rumors that Pakistani intelligence was involved in hiding the terrorist leader.
The Americans are not entirely wrong, said the Daily Times. Our leaders may not have helped al Qaida, but they certainly “saved the Afghan Taliban for a rainy day.” Assuming that the Taliban would return to power one day, Pakistan has played “a double game” and given the militants “carte blanche in operating for years from our soil.” The result is not pretty. Neither the U.S. nor Afghanistan trusts us the way they do our archrival India, which has restricted its involvement in Afghanistan to investing in development and agriculture. Our only sane choice is to cooperate more fully with the U.S.
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