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Taliban insurgents have carried out four high-profile attacks in Pakistan over the past week, killing at least 41 people. As the government prepares to launch a major operation against militants in the northwest part of the country, officials say they expect the violence to continue.
Since the beginning of the war in Afghanistan, Pakistan has played the part of American all,y while also allowing extremists to operate freely within its borders. But now that Pakistan is itself the target, many speculate its relationship with the U.S. will change.
We’re taking a look at perspectives from NPR, The Huffington Post, FOX News, Al Jazeera English, The Times of India, MSNBC and TheAge.com.
A Huffington Post columnist says the attacks have changed Pakistan’s relationship with the Taliban forces, who were allowed to operate in order to keep Indian and American influence in Afghanistan in check, until the attacks on Pakistan began.
“The strategy of containing Pakistani extremist forces while giving free rein to those operating elsewhere has become unraveled... a monumental strategic blunder by Taliban forces that could force the Pakistani military and intelligence forces to look beyond South Waziristan and abandon their strategy of toleration for extremist groups.”
NPR reports on how Pakistani people and the military are refusing to accept that a problem with militancy exists and points out that the U.S. has taken a similar stance.
“Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appeared to downplay the unsettling events in U.S.-allied Pakistan this weekend. She said the United States sees 'no evidence' extremists are 'going to take over the Pakistani state.' Nor is there a risk, she said, of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal falling into terrorist hands.”
But TheAge.com has a different point of view. They say the Pakistan army is making “an unusually frank assessment,” admitting:
“The scale of the threat it faces from a coalition of Punjabi, al-Qaeda and Taliban militants whose attacks are increasingly coordinated."
As the violence increases, a reporter for Al Jazeera English highlights that some Pakistanis are growing more suspicious of America.
"People here are convinced that they are fighting an enemy, which is well funded from outside the country. The so-called Taliban and Americans are both our enemies. And they are the agents of the Americans, the militants, who are funding them. Whatever the facts on the ground might be, they have not proved reassuring to a public expecting the worst."
But while Pakistan media places blame outside its borders, FOX News has the view that the attacks are a failure of Pakistani forces. They say the vulnerability of the country and the increasing power of the Taliban are a toxic combination.
“Anyway you slice it Bill, this was an embarrassment for the Pakistani army because it was gate No. 1 of GHQ, that’s Pakistan’s Pentagon here and it’s just next to the capitol here in Islamabad […] there wasn’t a question of them actually getting their hands on any kind of weapons by getting into this base, but it is a big signal that these militants can attack even very high sensitive targets.”
An opinion piece in the Times of India, titled ‘Losing Its Grip,’ warns the U.S. military to avoid playing Pakistan and Afghanistan off of each other.
“It is a particularly inopportune time for Washington to flirt with that hoary old chestnut of good Taliban, bad Taliban. The Afghan Taliban and their Pakistani counterparts exist in a symbiotic relationship. Concede space to one and the other will prosper.”
The attacks coincide with a U.S. foreign aid package approved by Congress last week that gives Pakistan $1.5 billion annually for the next five years, as long as they expand operations against the Taliban. In an interview on MSNBC, David Ignatius said that the stipulations in the package "insult" Pakistanis and further weakens Pakistani and U.S. relations.
"We're fighting and dying in the same way you are, and rather than help us, and thank us for what we're doing, you give us these conditions which no Pakistanis can defend. I find it sad. I think Congress has to ratchet back on its finger waging mode, telling people what to do, because in this case it has really blown up in our face."
What do you think? How will the most recent conflicts affect the relationship between the U.S. and Pakistan?
