Incompatible allies

[unhappycamper]

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/kt-article-display-1.asp?xfile=/data/opinion/2013/November/opinion_November8.xml§ion=opinion

A patchwork of compromises keeps Pakistan and US afloat

Incompatible allies
Dilip Hiro (Counter Point) / 6 November 2013

The United States and Pakistan are like an incompatible couple who can’t help bickering when together while well aware that divorce is not an option. The awkward joint appearance of US President Barrack Obama and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for a press briefing after their White House meeting on October 23, when they declined to take questions from reporters, aptly summed up the troubled relationship. This dysfunctional kinship, however, is moving towards a climax as the US withdraws forces and equipment from Afghanistan primarily through Pakistan

The bottom line is that the glue holding the two countries together consists of more negative than positive elements. Washington needs Islamabad in its ongoing war on terrorism – a desperate necessity at least until the withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan. And cash-strapped Pakistan is dependent on handouts from Washington and US-sanctioned International Monetary Fund loans.

This dependency exists against the background of mutual Pakistan-American mistrust at the popular level.

A 2013 survey by the Pew Research Center shows that only 11 per cent of Pakistanis have a favourable view of America. An earlier survey by the Pew Center and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace revealed that only 10 per cent of Americans have a great or fair amount of trust in Pakistan. It also showed that 97 per cent of Pakistanis familiar with US drone strikes held a negative view of them.