Pakistan: The Trust Deficit

The deadly cross-border attack in Pakistan this weekend, in which Afghan and NATO forces accidentally killed at least 25 Pakistani soldiers during an airstrike, is only the latest symptom of America’s toxic relationship with Pakistan. It’s becoming increasingly clear that the Pakistanis want Americans out of their country, despite our best efforts to convince ourselves otherwise. We’ve been slow to heed what an actual rupture will mean for our foreign policy.

It’s worth pointing out that this decline in our relationship happened on President Obama’s watch. The much-vaunted Nobel Peace Prize winner doesn’t appear to have figured out diplomacy yet — he’s attempted to engage Iran (didn’t work) and stopped talking to Maliki and Karzai (didn’t work), while failing to give Pakistan the same kind of attention he’s showered on Indonesia. That’s strange, as this is the relationship that has needed the most tending to, because Pakistan is crucial to both transitioning power in the war in Afghanistan and containing the spread of nuclear weapons in the region and world.

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