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Apple-tab-span {white-space:pre} In Nicholas Schmidle article, he represents the difficulties in the relationship with Pakistan and the Central Intelligence Agency. Schimdle critiques the United States ongoing tactics and misunderstanding of the cooperation of Pakistan. He represents this with the judgment of the actions done in the past and actions currently taking place from President Donald Trump’s Administration.
Schmidle starts his article describing the attitude set towards Pakistan during President George Bush term. President Bush received a list of terrorists that were suspected of hiding in Pakistan. According to Schmidle, President Bush expressed confusion when he received the list. Pakistan has been considered by some an American ally for years, thus discovering that most of the terrorists were hiding out in a so-called an American ally was surprising. Former President Bush asked Former President of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, to look into the situation.
After this request, Pakistan’s military intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence, quickly arrested one of the top terrorists on the list. (Schmidle 2018) Pakistan has been “in many ways” America’s best counterterrorism partner, an official told Schmidle, “nobody had taken more bad guys off the battlefield than the Pakistanis.”.
However, without disregarding Pakistan’s help at most times, the main issue is that Pakistan has not yet to go against all terrorists. Pakistan has chosen to go against terrorist groups like Al Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban, yet continue to support the Afghan Taliban, the Haqqanis, and anti-India jihadis. (Schmidle 2018) Although, Pakistan’s careful selection of terror groups to support was not an unfamiliar notion to the C.I.
A. the loyalty of the Inter-Services Intelligence to groups which the C.I.
A found as a breach of trust is the starting foundation to the difficulties in the relationship with Pakistan and the C.I.A. Henceforth, Schmidle and many intelligence officials are demanding a decision to be made from the Pakistani agency “It’s frustrating. Our talking points have been identical for the last fifteen years: ‘You need to get tough on terrorism, and you need to close the sanctuaries,’ ” (Schmidle 2018). Seeing that the Pakistani agency is still not siding with any side, the Trump administration decided to cut the financial aid given to Pakistan “Donald Trump became the third President to echo that frustration. “The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years,” he tweeted. “They have given us nothing but lies & deceit.
” …the State Department announced that it was suspending military-equipment deliveries and financial assistance to Pakistan until the country took, in the words of a senior Administration official, “decisive action” against the Afghan Taliban, the Haqqani network, and other groups that “threaten U.S. interests and U.S. personnel” in Afghanistan.” (Schmidle 2018) Schmidle makes sure to show the aggressive approach that is being currently taken against the Pakistanis to show how the relationship between Pakistan and the United States has changed. Unlike President Bush, which approached the Pakistanis situation with more compassion, Trump’s Administration seems much more demanding.
The United States is currently making very specific requests of Pakistan. Schmidle explains that the most disputed request is for the Inter-Services Intelligence to take action. The United States wants them to reduce the support that they give to the Taliban and other terrorist organizations in Pakistan. Trump’s Administration’s approach is a condition based approach.
The relationship with Pakistan is as well conditioned. The condition will be based upon whether or not they take action from what the United State feels necessary to move forward for creating a reconciliation. As previously mentioned, Schmidle and many intelligence officials are demanding a decision to be made from Pakistan. The main reason for the frustration is because of the financial assistance that the United States has given Pakistan. Schmidle and many intelligence officials feel that although some of the money is used to help in some of the requests made from the United States the rest is being put to help the terrorist groups that the United States condemns. Why does the United States need to fund a country which supports such groups? Schimdle explains, that although he does want a decision to be made form the Pakistanis, the hope from Americans that Pakistan will agree and get in the fight against the Taliban and other terrorist organizations is not a reasonable request or expectation. At the end of the day, Pakistan is not happy with the orders made form the United States at the moment, because it is looking out for its own national interest.
Members of the Inter-Services Intelligence (I.S.I) feel that the United States wants Pakistan to do the C.I.
A’s dirty work which explains the United States inability to understand that their interest is not entirely the same interests of the Pakistanis. According to the I.S.
I. they believe that they have done more than enough for the United States. Although, Schimdle wanted a decision made from Pakistan, he ends his article showing how the misunderstanding of the cooperation of Pakistan affects negatively both sides. Schimdle reminds readers that Pakistan has its own issues within its own country that it is trying to fix. Thus, Pakistan may never fully take orders from the United States until they are able to resolve those same problems.
Pakistan has not yet chosen United States side, thus, their current tactic to get what they want is giving the Pakistanis an ultimatum.
