A Relationship on the Brink: Pakistan and the United States

While the Torkham border crossing between Pakistan and Afghanistan may have reopened on October 10^th, the preceding ten-day period in which NATO supplies were prohibited from crossing into war torn Afghanistan illustrates the predicament the United States faces in its dealings with the Pakistani government. Not only are the supply lines that run from the port of Karachi into Afghanistan essential to the American-lead war effort, but the U.S. also finds itself dependent on Pakistani military action in that country’s tribal areas, where Taliban and other insurgent forces that take refuge there and coordinate attacks against NATO forces within Afghanistan. Since the start of the war in Afghanistan, the United States government has continually urged the Pakistani government to do more in its fight against the Taliban and other insurgent networks, like the Haqqani Network, but with little success. According to an October 7^th, 2010 Voice of America article, the United States has poured 15 billion dollars of aid into Pakistan since the onset of the war in 2001. Such funding has been designed not only to equip and train the Pakistani military to conduct counter-insurgency operations, but also to strengthen Islamabad’s control over its border regions.

Despite its acceptance of U.S. military aid, Pakistan has been reluctant to launch large-scale operations in Federally Administered Tribal Areas against the Haqqani network and the Taliban. Pakistan’s disinclination to fight such groups has strained the relationship between the two nations. As the war in Afghanistan continues to drag on, Pakistan’s inaction is increasingly blamed. The fact that militants can launch attacks against coalition forces and then slip across the border into effective sanctuaries in Pakistan continues to thwart NATO’s efforts to quell the insurgency. Mounting U.S. frustration with Islamabad has contributed to the sharp increase in the number of drone strikes within the tribal areas in the last few months and ultimately to the recent cross border aerial assault by American forces on suspected insurgents inside of Pakistan. These suspected combatants turned out to be Pakistani border troops. This blatant violation of Pakistani sovereignty coupled with the wrongful deaths of Pakistani soldiers prompted the Pakistani government to take the step of closing the border crossing at Torkham.

Pakistan’s closing of the border was aimed both demonstrate to the U.S. its dependence on Pakistan as a supply hub and ally, and to illustrate Islamabad’s independence from Washington and its anger over such territorial violations. Although it is widely acknowledged that Pakistani government secretly coordinates and supports many of the drone attacks by American forces inside of Pakistan, the deaths of the frontier guards demanded an official response. Nationalist elements within the country bitterly oppose what they see as Pakistan’s subservience to the U.S. As such anti-American sentiments gain strength, the increasingly unpopular government of Pakistan felt compelled to act.

This growing tension between the United States and Pakistan is likely to remain in the news in the near future. While this particular incident was seemingly resolved by the largely symbolic closing of the border for a short period, the underlying issue of Pakistan’s reluctance to engage militant forces in the tribal areas is not likely to be resolved in such an easy manner. To help alleviate this unwillingness on the part of the Pakistani’s, the Obama Administration announced on October 21^st an additional two billion dollars in military aid to Pakistan over the next five years. This aid is meant to demonstrate America’s commitment to the Pakistani government, and yet in spite of the vast amount of aid that the U.S. continues to distribute there, Pakistan appears to be close to chaos. Considering the horrific floods that devastated much of the country in August 2010, it is ill prepared to launch a major military operation into the tribal areas in the near future. And unless something is done to address the growing American frustration, similar border incidents are likely to continue happening into the future.