Pakistan brings a weak hand to Washington

Washington Post:

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani has a clear agenda for his inaugural visit to Washington this week: He wants more aid, more patience and less pressure from the United States as his four-month-old coalition government develops a strategy to combat Taliban and al-Qaeda forces in the tribal areas along his country's border with Afghanistan.

But while Gillani may leave town with more money -- targeted toward education, development and assistance to cope with skyrocketing food and fuel prices -- U.S. patience is likely to be in short supply, with the Bush administration publicly chastising the new Pakistani leadership for its reluctance to move aggressively against terrorist redoubts inside its territory.

"Pakistan is a friend; Pakistan is an ally," President Bush said this month, but the rise in cross-border infiltration "ought to be troubling" to its government.

Other officials were more blunt: "We need Pakistan to put more pressure on that border," Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen said last week, while on Friday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice echoed that Pakistan "need[s] to do more."

Congress, in rare bipartisan accord on foreign policy, has grown increasingly outspoken against Pakistan's preference for negotiating with tribal leaders. Current legislative proposals make any new U.S. counterterrorism aid -- the bulk of more than $10 billion Washington has provided Pakistan since 2001 -- conditional on demonstrated results.

"I'm not sure they're ready for what they're walking into," one U.S. official said in anticipation of a testy reception for Gillani from both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.

Pakistani officials say they understand that the seven-year-old Afghan war is not going well for U.S. and NATO forces. But far from accepting blame for the worsening situation, the new government harbors its own suspicions about Washington's impatience. Some question whether the Bush administration was simply more comfortable dealing with Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who ruled Pakistan single-handedly for more than a decade, than it is with the admittedly messy democratic government that replaced him.

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My message to Pakistan's new leaders is that it is not that we favor Musharraf. What we favor is effective action against the terrorist Pakistan is giving sanctuary to. What we see from the new government is a tolerance for the Taliban using Pakistan as a sanctuary for its losing fight in Afghanistan. At best the new government appears to be careless about the evil they are permitting. At worse they some times appear to be giving active assistance to it and when they do challenge it, they are very ineffective.

While Pakistan paranoia may still cause fear of India there is little to no evidence that India would have any desire to conquer Pakistan. India's main concern with Pakistan is to defend against some of the same kind of threats Pakistan poses to Afghanistan. Pakistan harbors many religious bigots who want to exact mass murder for Allah on her neighbors. It is those people Pakistan needs to effectively deal with if it expects aid.