With critics accusing Pakistan of playing a double-game with terrorists as it guzzles US aid, the White House is struggling to defend its “complicated” relationship with a key ally.
The unilateral US raid that killed Osama bin Laden in a Pakistani garrison town last month humiliated Islamabad and dealt a major blow to ties that were strained even before the death of the Al-Qaeda chief.
Top administration officials have struggle to defend the relationship with Pakistan as necessary for the beginning of a troop withdrawal from neighboring Afghanistan as critics have slammed Islamabad as a liability.
“Our relationship with Pakistan is extremely important. It is also complicated,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said this week.
“The cooperation that we do get is vital and essential to our war against terrorists and terrorism.”
But a number of lawmakers have called for cutting assistance to Pakistan, which has received $21 billion in US aid since 2001, two-thirds of it military, according to the Congressional Research Service (CSR).
“I think what’s happened is over bin Laden, the mutual suspicion, and the lack of cooperation has really crystallized,” Dianne Feinstein, chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, told CNN Thursday.
“The trust and credibility has now deteriorated,” she said.
Pakistan, which had close ties to Afghanistan’s Taliban prior to the September 11, 2001 attacks, is still routinely accused of covertly backing insurgents who are attacking US troops, charges it denies.
This week the New York Times reported that Pakistan had arrested five CIA informants who had helped pinpoint bin Laden, sparking outrage in the United States. Pakistan’s military said the story was “totally baseless.”
And the Washington Post cited both US and Pakistani officials as saying that the security relationship has dipped to its lowest point since the September 11, 2001 attacks, threatening counterterrorism programs.
And yet Obama administration officials insist that Pakistan remains a key ally and has a major role to play in helping to secure Afghanistan as US troops begin to withdraw next month.
“It’s a relationship both sides have had to work on. And it is complicated,” US Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters on Thursday.
“We need each other. And we need each other more than just in the context of Afghanistan. Pakistan is an important player in terms of regional stability and in terms of Central Asia,” the outgoing secretary said.
He noted that Pakistan, a nuclear power, has deployed 140,000 troops to its lawless provinces along the border with Afghanistan.
“The key is to keep the lines of communication between our governments open and to continue communicating with each other as openly and as honestly as we can.”
Speaking before the US Senate earlier this week, Gates was more cynical.
“I would say based on 27 years in the CIA and four-and-a-half years in this job, most governments lie to each other. That’s the way business gets done,” he said, without mentioning Pakistan specifically.
Admiral Mike Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has also used the language of personal relationships, saying “we need to give it a little time and a little space as they go through this introspection.”
“I think there will be opportunities for the relationship to improve,” he added.
State Department spokesman Mark Toner said this week that US diplomats “have a strong relationship with our Pakistani counterparts. We work through issues when they arise.”
“We’ve been upfront about challenges in the relationship but we’ve been also consistent in saying Pakistan and US need each other.”
