The results of an inconsistent foreign policy are quite embarrassing.
April 21 2011, BBC: Mullen: Pakistan’s ISI spy agency has ‘militant links’
The US military’s top officer, Adm Mike Mullen, has accused Pakistan’s spy agency of having links with militants targeting troops in Afghanistan.
He said Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) had a “long-standing relationship” with a militant group run by Afghan insurgent Jalaluddin Haqqani.
April 21 2011, Reuters: US to supply Pakistan with 85 mini-drones
The United States will provide Pakistan with 85 small “Raven” drone aircraft, a U.S. military official told Reuters, a key step to addressing Islamabad’s calls for access to U.S. drone technology.
Update and further thoughts:
April 22, CNN: U.S. departs Pakistan base, source says
U.S. military personnel have left a southern base in Pakistan said to be a key hub for American drone operations in the country’s northwestern tribal areas, a senior Pakistani intelligence official told CNN on Friday.
It seems that the “small drones” carrot did not work as planed.
The current relation mess started when the U.S. spy Raymond Davis killed two Pakistani men in Lahore without any good reason and was imprisoned in Pakistan. The U.S. then stopped all drone attacks on Pakistani grounds and after a while payed a big bribe to get Davis released.
While that was an embarrassment for both sides, the real mess was created when some idiots within the CIA decided to take revenge for Davis’ capture and imprisonment. He was released on March 16 and the very next day the CIA launched a drone attack which killed more then 40 people who were at a normal tribal jirga, were neither ‘Taliban’ nor ‘militants’ and were on friendly footing with the Pakistani government.
That straw broke the back of the proverbial camel.
All the years Pakistan wanted real eye-to-eye relations with the U.S. but never could achieve such. The U.S. only wanted a client state which would do whatever it was told to do. Despite the fact that the success of the Afghanistan campaign depends on good relations with Pakistan, business deals with India proved to be more important to the U.S. than Pakistan’s existential fears. (India occupies Kashmir, the source of the Indus river which is Pakistan’s sole lifeline. India has several projects to divert that water for its own benefit.)
Pakistan has learned the lecture. Maybe. Ordering the CIA base which directs the drone strikes closed is a serious step. It is not decisive. Drone strikes will continue from the bases in Afghanistan. A really decisive step would be a cut off of the logistic line through Pakistan for U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
Pressure to do so comes from the street. Pakistan is not immune to public movements and the Egyptians did set an example. The Pakistani military knows this but I am not sure it will act decisively enough towards the U.S. to prevent a serious internal revolt.
After that? Who knows?