The U.S.-Pakistani relationship has been going downhill ever since Navy SEALS flew in –without permission — to get Osama bin Laden.
Relations with Pakistan have gotten so bad since the raid on bin Laden’s compound, the deputy director of the CIA told a closed door hearing on Capitol Hill it’s a 3 on a scale of 10. According to Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, relations are close to the breaking point.
“We’re at a crossroads with Pakistan. We’re on a collision course with Pakistan,” Graham said.
While the U.S. wants Pakistan to go after the support network which allowed bin Laden to hide in plain sight, Pakistan instead has arrested and interrogated 5 people suspected of helping the CIA pull off the raid.
It is all part of a spy versus spy game the U.S. plays with one of its most important allies, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy to get used to it.
“Based on 27 years in CIA and four and a half years in this job, most governments lie to each other. That’s the way business gets done,” Gates said.
Although CIA drone strikes against terrorist safe havens in Pakistan’s border area continue without let up, Pakistani intelligence at the same time actually protects some of the terrorist groups.
The CIA gave Pakistan the location of two compounds where the explosives smuggled across the border to kill American soldiers in Afghanistan are manufactured. Someone in Pakistani intelligence apparently alerted the terrorists who immediately emptied out the compounds.
But for all the double dealing, the chairman of the Pentagon’s Joint Chiefs of Staff says the U.S. cannot afford to turn its back on a country that has both terrorists and nuclear weapons on its soil.
“If we walk away from it, it’s my view it will be a much more dangerous place a decade from now and we’ll be back,” Adm. Mike Mullen said.
Right now, Pakistan is pushing the U.S. away. They have kicked out virtually all the Americans who were training their military.
