[It] doesn’t make a lot of sense to refer to a government whose intelligence service assists military efforts by al Qaeda and the Taliban against U.S. troops in Afghanistan as an “ally.” Indeed, a report released last year by the London School of Economics concluded it is the “official policy” of Pakistan’s [Inter-Services Intelligence] to support the Taliban. That the ISI occasionally helps the U.S. target al Qaeda and Taliban cells in Pakistan doesn’t mean the relationship between Washington and Islamabad is one between trusted security partners.
But when we've won in Afghanistan or when we no longer need Pakistan's variable commitment to helping us win in Afghanistan, we need to cut Pakistan loose. Oh, we could remain friends, but it would have to be based on our terms that Pakistan stops supporting terrorists and inciting jihadis within Pakistan as a pillar of support for their corrupt government.
Pakistan is simply not a long-term friend and ally, I'm sad to say. Right now, we do what we must to win a war. But we should not get used to this as the natural state of affairs. Remember that we have a long history of allying with Pakistan only because of the oddities of the Cold War where India needed help against China and so turned to the Soviet Union and we needed help against the Soviets and so turned to China. Pakistan became the default friend of America and China because of the Soviet factor. That factor, I'm happy to say, is no longer there.
We need to prepare for the time when we can do what we should.
