Trust Pakistan?

There is an interesting article on BBC today about Holbrooke’s visit to Pakistan. I really can’t believe some of the things I’m reading. Hopefully the American’s aren’t taking them at face value either.

This is probably the best part of the article:

Mr Zardari said Pakistan needed "unconditional support" to fight terrorism and extremism.

Unconditional support you say…well how about this, we will only impose one condition…that you actually start fighting terrorism instead of 1. cutting deals with the terrorists, or 2. waiting until something goes REALLY wrong and then arresting a few people. What real action has been taken in the wake of the last 2 attacks in Pakistan? Not much is seems to me. I’ve said it before and I suppose I’ll keep saying it, the sooner the Pakistani’s realize that this is a problem for them, not just the Afghans and the Americans, the better off we will all be.

It makes me sad that the Pakistani doesn’t think that they can deal with this problem themselves, especially when money from the West can easily be used to label the government as simply a stooge of Washington. I find it interesting when contrasted with the energy devoted to Pakistan’s efforts to build a nuclear weapon.

From Kapur’s “Pakistan’s Nuclear Development”:

As far back as 1965 Bhutto had said: “If India builds the bomb, we will eat grass or leaves, even go hungry, but we will get one of our own. We have no alternative.”

Where is this drive and determination when it comes to rooting out terrorists? Especially when President Asif Ali Zardari, is telling Holbrooke that Pakistan was "battling for its own survival". You are battling for your own survival, and you think you are in a position to ask for unconditional support? Maybe the Americans should be spending the billions you want for aid on preparing to lock down your nukes when the government does collapse. One would think that fighting for survival would concentrate minds and encourage results in dealing with terrorism…unless what you really want is not to eliminate terrorism, but simply to collect cash with no strings attached…

I would like to see some good faith on the part of the Pakistani’s before we continue to hand over cash with no accountability. We have already given billions of basically unconditional dollars to Pakistan when Musharaff was in charge and have gotten next to no return for them. Simply showing me casualty figures doesn’t count. It doesn’t take a motivated effort to root out terrorists in order to get your soldiers killed.