Osama bin Laden lived for the past five to six years in the compound deep inside Pakistan where the al Qaeda leader was killed by U.S. forces, President Barack Obama's counterterrorism adviser said on Tuesday.
Our failure to find Osama bin Laden once led me to speculate that he wasn't even in Pakistan and that someone outside of Pakistan gave him sanctuary. I honestly wouldn't have been shocked to find that he was somewhere inside Russia, held in safety there just in case they needed him.
The apparent fact that bin Laden lived in Pakistan in one location for many years indicates that he thought he had protection from powerful people inside Pakistan.
We need to find these people hedging their bets by waging war on both sides. And remove their power. I know that Pakistan has paid a price in high casualties--both civilian victims and security forces--fighting domestic jihadis. But this doesn't excuse the double-dealing of Pakistanis in positions of power. Indeed, for the Pakistani people who have paid the price in blood while not enjoying the money involved in the double-dealing, that price should anger the Pakistani people and not make them indignant that we insist the Pakistani government do more.
The Pakistanis need to understand that they have to act like a real ally. Their leaders may think that they are oh so clever by reaping American money to fight jihadis while buying legitimacy and protection by aiding Islamists, but this is a dangerous game they are playing. If they continue to go through the motions of helping us--doing the bare minimum to avoid an open break with America--they will find that when we don't need to put up with this crap we'll drop them in a New York minute.
