US-Pakistan Alliance Still Not Able to Remove Terrorism

At a panel discussion held at Washington DC recently, a scholar said that the United States should break its alliance with Pakistan to remove terrorism as this alliance has not been effective so far. He also said that Pakistan has further objectives to follow which are completely different from US foreign policy. According to the scholar these objectives are mainly to remove Indian influence in its territory and to counter the US allies in Afghanistan who are enemies of the state. The scholar demanded to the US to stop sending military aid. This all was discussed at Heritage Foundation discussion on June 19.

Christine Fair, an assistant professor at Georgetown University’s security studies program, stated in her new book, “Fighting to the End: The Pakistan Army’s Way of War,” that the Pakistan Army uses violence and uneven warfare to tackle the enemies for the sake of Muslim protection throughout South Asia. While discussing the book, she said that Pakistan is not a secure country and it always desires more area to itself. She accused Pakistan of using US military to tackle India to fulfill the two nation theory. She also said Pakistan should be treated as an enemy.

According to her Pakistan has ruined its relations with India and Afghanistan due to the protection of Muslim’s belief. She said that US has contributed a lot of financial aid which has resulted in nothing as the country is doing nothing in stopping terrorism. David S. Sedney, former deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia, said that maintaining relations with Pakistan is important to stop extremists from getting their hands on nuclear weapons. He added that US is a close ally to Pakistan as US relies on it to counter Taliban and sends military aid to it to improve relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan. He said that relations of US with Pakistan will be crucial for the years to come.

Sedney said that Pakistan lawmakers have learned from their mistakes and Pakistan is helping US in a lot of ways. He suggested that a healthy relationship was the main requirement for now.  Fair spoke against this claiming that Pakistan doesn’t look back to its losses but still continues to harm India and counter it. She accused Pakistan of claiming friendship with US while it harms India and US allies in Afghanistan which puts a question on the trust Pakistan shares with US.