Secretary of State Hilary Clinton has been very visible lately. First, she publicly expressed frustration that al-Qaeda militants have been allowed a sanctuary inside Pakistan, along the border with Afghanistan. This vocal admonition surprised many Pakistani officials, but they really shouldn’t be surprised. Pakistan continues to play a two-way game with the United States on the subject of terrorists and radical militants it harbors. Clinton’s words were, for once, a stark acknowledgment that the criminals who masterminded the worst terrorist attack in modern history have basically operated freely in Pakistan since late 2001.
It doesn’t matter whether Pakistan is either unwilling or incapable of cooperating fully—up to this point, they simply haven’t. (And, for the record, the judgment falls down much closer to the side of unwillingness.) That’s simply not good enough, after having been given billions of dollars in military aid, only for that equipment and financing to be used to bolster against a completely hypothetical Indian invasion of Kashmir or Pakistan proper. For that reason, the Kerry-Lugar aid bill to Pakistan attached stipulations to U.S. aid, and greatly expanded civilian assistance. Pakistan will never become a reasonable regional player while its military dominates its political discourse. Delusional beliefs about ‘strategic depth’ and a deliberately ‘nudge nudge, wink wink’ approach to religious and political extremists are a hindrance to the development of both Pakistan itself and its neighbors.
Hopefully, all that will change. Clinton went further in an interview with Fox News, arguing that had the United States not totally dropped the ball in fall-winter 2001, we wouldn’t be in this situation. Indeed, had we put proper pressure on Pakistan then not to allow any safe haven for extremists, and pushed for them to seal their border, we would have killed or captured the al-Qaeda leadership (bin Laden, Zawahiri) and the core Afghan Taliban centered around Mullah Omar. That would have been the greatest benefit to American credibility, and would have created a greater peace dividend to encourage South Asia to reform in a peaceful direction. But that didn’t happen, and now we’re faced with no good options.
