THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XIII, Issue # 113, May 4, 2011
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
U.S.-PAKISTAN RELATIONS IN DECLINE
By Dr. Daniel Pipes
U.S. FOREIGN & NATIONAL SECURITY POLICY, AS IT RELATES TO PAKISTAN & ITS PRO-ISLAMIST GOVERNMENT:
WHAT SHOULD THE U.S. GOVERNMENT DO ABOUT THE CRISIS IN U.S.-PAKISTAN RELATIONS? GIVE UP ON THE
PRETENCE THAT THE TWO COUNTRIES ARE ALLIES & TREAT PAKISTAN (WITH ITS MANY MADRASSAHS, ITS ISLAMIST
MILITARY LEADERSHIP, & ITS ROGUE INTELLIGENCE SERVICE) AS A DANGER ZONE. ADOPT A POLICY OF
CONTAINMENT OF THE ISLAMISM COMING OUT OF PAKISTAN, REWARDING COOPERATION & PUNISHING HOSTILE ACTS.
DEVELOP AMERICA'S FLEXIBILITY TO COLLABORATE OR CONFRONT, AS CHANGING CIRCUMSTANCES WARRANT.
FULL STORY:
Although the execution of Osama bin Laden was mainly a symbolic and psychological act of counterterrorism, its most
immediate consequence, ironically, affects U.S.-Pakistan relations.
In response to Pakistanis upset about their national sovereignty being trespassed, the Zardari government severely
condemned what it called "an unauthorized unilateral action."
Members of the U.S. Congress, already disappointed in the use of American aid to Pakistan, are so upset about apparent
Pakistani government protection for bin Laden, they talk of cutting back on the annual assistance, which came to almost
$4.5 billion in 2010.
Obama and Zardari -- allies no more?
This sudden crisis in relations between the U.S.A. and Pakistan may be unexpected, but it culminates a process that has
developed over decades. Pakistan is one of several Muslim-majority countries (Yemen is another; Turkey is becoming a
third) where the U.S. government basically lacks any friends.
Although such a situation severely limits American options, here is a realistic policy recommendation that serves
American interests:
Give up on the pretence that the two governments are allies and treat Pakistan – with its many madrassahs, its Islamist
military leadership, and its rogue intelligence service – as a danger zone. Adopt a policy of containment vis-à-vis the
Islamism coming out of Pakistan, rewarding cooperation and punishing hostile acts. This approach permits Washington
flexibly to collaborate or confront, as circumstances warrant and as U.S. foreign and national security policy requires
change.
© Daniel Pipes 2011
Originally Published in National Review Online, May 4, 2011
Republished with the Permission of Daniel Pipes
Reprinted from the Daniel Pipes Mailing List, May 4, 2011
URL: http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2011/05/us-pakistan-relations
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Asia -- Central & South Asia:
Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, & Their Neighbors
American Foreign Policy -- The Islamic Middle East
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
International Politics & World Disorder:
War, Peace, & Geopolitics in the Real World:
Foreign Affairs & U.S. National Security
Page Two
Page One
Dr. Daniel Pipes, a Ph.D. in Islamic History (Harvard University, 1978), is Founder and Director of the Middle East Forum,
Publisher of Middle East Quarterly,
Founder of Campus Watch, Taube Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University, a
signatory of the Project for the New American Century, a former board member of the U.S. Institute of Peace, a former
adjunct scholar at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a Golden Circle supporter of the U.S. Committee for a Free
Lebanon, a former member of the U.S. Department of Defense Special Task Force on Terrorism and Technology, and a
former lecturer at the U.S. Naval War College, Harvard University, the University of Chicago, and the University of
Pennsylvania. Dr. Pipes was the Director of the Foreign Policy Research Institute from 1986 to 1993.
Author or co-author of eighteen books, Dr. Pipes is a regular columnist for National Review Online, Front Page
Magazine, the New York Sun, and the Jerusalem Post. His analyses of world trends and of forces and
developments in the Middle East have appeared in numerous North American newspapers, including the Washington
Post, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal. He frequently appears on American network
television, as well as at universities and think tanks, to discuss the Middle East, Islam, and the Islamist threat to the
U.S.A. and the West. He also has appeared on BBC and Al Jazeera, and has lectured in approximately
twenty-five countries.
Dr. Pipes is a Polish-American Jew whose parents fled Poland in 1939, immigrated to the U.S.A., and assimilated well into
American society and culture. His father is Richard Pipes, an American historian specializing in Russian and Soviet history
and serving as Professor of History at Harvard University from 1950 until his retirement in 1996. During the Cold War, the
worldview of Richard Pipes was strongly anti-Soviet and anti-Communist.
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