Thursday, October 30, 2008

Pakistan

The question is simple: Is Pakistan an ally of the US in the war on terror? 5 extra points go to the writer of the best response on the next unit test. Use the weblinks below as well as outside info to help formulate your answer. Responses are due on Nov. 9th.

http://www.fas.org/man/crs/IB94041.pdf

http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/4564.asp

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/10/29/pakistan.drone.kidnapping/?iref=mpstoryview

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1029/p01s02-wosc.html

26 comments:

AliyahB said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
AliyahB said...

I do not believe that Pakistan is an ally with the U.S. We fund Pakistan ($5.5 billion) because we want them on our side but they help our enemy we are at war with, Al-Qaeda. How can Pakistan be an ally when they indirectly support the killing of our American soldiers? Pakistan can’t decide which side they are on, which makes them unstable and undependable in situations of need. Pakistan is a huge threat because the government supports ISI which is in favor of AL-Qaeda. If Al-Qaeda gets a hold of the government’s nuclear power then the U.S is in serious danger. If the U.S can’t depend on Pakistan, then they are not a real ally. Pakistan may be convenient for the U.S right now, but if we can’t get them fully on our side then we will have future national security problems with Al-Qaeda and Pakistan.

Anonymous said...

the answer is simple as well, heck no! Unlike a trusty ally, Pakistan has caused more problems for the US military than solutions. The Pakistani government is extremely unreliable when it comes to suppressing the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Pakistan is a major funder of the Taliban through drug money and now government funds. The government is too afraid of the strength and devotion of these tribal areas in which they can't control. Pakistan is unstable in that it's torn between its politics and civilian intentions.

tbladecki said...

Many would like to believe that we are the allies of Pakistan in the war on terror, but the answer is actually no. It's obvious to see that in politics for some reason the U.S. thinks that Pakistan is allied with them. This falsification is only based on the fact that they are democratic so the U.S. thinks that they have to be our allies. Why doesn't Pakistan allow our troops in to go after Al-Qaeda? The answer is simple. it's because we aren't allies.

DR0ach said...

Pakistan directly is a ally with the United States. Official written on paper as a cover they are allies with the United States. Pakistan really underneath is controdicting many of our goals and aspirations. They constantly go against what the U.S. wants. They have tried to help us eliminate Al-Qaeda and have recieved many casualties. Unfortuanatly all they have done is tried. After one failed attempt on some Al-Qaeda camps Pakistan stopped trying. They made a wishy wash truce that resolved with the Pakistan government paying for the destruction that they caused. We pay Pakistan five and a half billion dollars and in turn the Pakistanian government funds or pays Al-Qaeda. Indirectly the U.S. is funding the terrorist organization that U.S. soldiers are fighting in Afghanistan. Overall I believe that they should be cut off from funds and deemed a non ally country. They will not help us eliminate a threat not only to the U.S. but also their country. They will not allow us to set up camps or road blocks/patrols to sustain the flow of Al-Qaeda from Pakistan to Afghanistan. There are only a select few roads from Pakistan through the mountains to Afghanistan if only they let the U.S. or they themselves set up blockades terrorism into Afghanistan would dwindle. If Pakistan was truly an ally with the U.S. on the war on terror they would help or allow intervention with the terrorists that are for a fact coming from Pakistan to Afghanistan.

jbadylak-reals said...

Pakistani government was officially an ally with the US when President George W. Bush named them a major non-NATO ally. Their citizens believe different and attack the US on their own. The people don’t trust us because of our missile strikes and ground operations that have killed many civilians and they don’t understand why we are “attacking” them. But it also shows the US’s mistrust to Pakistan. Their government is too unreliable and unstable to be one of our buddies. They don’t have tight control on their own intelligent and security services which are turning their backs on terrorist organizations because they are sympathetic toward these Islamic Jihadists groups. The government is also scared and can’t really control the Tribal regions enough to not smother any uprisings trying to overthrow the government that the US now supports. I believe that our government thinks Pakistan is our ally yet really they’re just buffer people we can use to help us fight terrorists. The common Pakistani sees this but the top government officials just see the written agreements and the overview on what’s supposed to be happening.

Meo R.P said...

America needs Pakistan as an ally in the war so Pakistan will do whatever it pleases even if the president says that we have the country's full cooperation. For now whatever actions that Palestine decides to take America will have to turn their heads and deal with it. Although that was during the Bush administration, maybe Barrack has some other ideas in how to deal with the lingering thought of "is Pakistan an ally?" Their nuclear program should definately be in question when it is supplying heavily North Korea, Libya, and IRAN; why if they are an ally are they supplying Iran. Also they have another thing against them that the government cannot control and that is their trbal areas that are anti Western Shi'ia and Christian. I think that its impossible to have a country as an ally when influential tribal groups would rather kill Americans then help them. I love this statistic "only 6%" of Pakistani people bleieve that the US is sincere to the combat terroism efforts and half believe that the US want to RULE THE WORLD and 2/3 agree with Al Qaeda's original founder OSama Bin Laden. Now really how can Americans expect cooperation from these people when for the most part they go against everything we believe. In 2004, for the eleventh straight year, the nonpartisan group called the Freedom House, stated that Pakistanis do not have civil liberties and and political rights. So the government of Pakistan can say all they want, but the people are the real deciders because they are the voice of the country. So all in all I don't really think that Pakistan is an ally because the people don't agree with what the government has to say.

mclark said...

I do not think we are allies with Pakistan. We fund Pakistan money and support them and they give money to Al-Qaeda who is our enemy. They are funding the people who want us dead but they still call themselves our ally. Pakistan is protecting Al-Qaeda so that we cant find them and kill them. If we were to find Bin Laden and kill him we would dismantel the Taliban and Al-Qaeda making no need for Pakistan anymore on our part. They think that we wont help them in all the aid that we give them if that happens, so they fund our enemy making them NOT our ally.

Lilly Sutherland said...

I feel that Pakistan is not actually an ally. We call them an ally, and pretend that they are helping us, but in reality they are doing the opposite and we know it. We are feeding them money and they are feeding it to our enemies. its a vicious cycle that goes like this: we give Pakistan money and ask them to find Bin laden and fight Al-Qaeda. They give the money that we give them to Al-Qaeda and say they are looking for Bin Laden, when in reality they know that once they find him we will stop funding them. This cycle will most likely never end peacefully.

mfintonis said...

The United States government (especially George W. Bush) would like to believe that Pakistan is an ally yet Pakistan has repeatedly raised objections to foreign nations violating its sovereignty to pursue terrorists. A U.S. ground operation in September that left several civilians dead rankled relations between the two countries. In 2007, during General Musharraf's term, he reaped billions of dollars in economic aid and arms sales – while encountering little challenge from Washington over his backsliding from steps toward democratic rule. President George W. Bush has praised Pakistan as a "strong ally" in the fight against terrorists and said, in July of 2008, that (Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza) Gilani has made a "very strong commitment" to securing the dangerous border region. Yet, officials and state media said that missiles hit a religious school in a village just inside Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, killing six people. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the incident followed a series of strikes apparently by U.S. aircraft in recent months against militant leaders holed up in Pakistan's tribal belt. Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has termed the US attacks inside Pakistan’s territory as terrorism.Speaking to media persons at Prime Minister House here on Wednesday, Prime Minister Gilani said his government wants to take all the coalition partners on board on national issues. He said war against terrorism is Pakistan’s own war. Gilani said, “It is government’s responsibility to provide security to foreign diplomats and ambassadors, adding complete security will be provided to them.” Also, the United States is giving money to Pakistan who is then giving our money to our enemies. We are being killed with our own money. Thus, I believe that Pakistan is not an ally with the United States.

Jschweizer said...

What a fairy tale land. America, (the Bush Administration) likes to believe they're buddy buddy with an unstable government that has nuclear weapons: Pakistan! Musharraf in 2001 decided not to 'turn a blind eye' and leave his people hostage to terrorism, so he prentended to join the 'free world.' But didn't Pakistan recognize the Taliban regime in Afghanistan? The ISI is skipping along side the Pakistani government. With our funds of 5.5 billion dollars being sent to Pakistan they've only captured 700 Talibs! Bush has named Pakistan a non-NATO ally. Haha, if the people elect their government (Pakistani People's Party) why the hell are they attacking American troops if they're supposedly on our side!? I think it's ironic that America pretends to be allies with a country that tests nuclear weapons on their own people. As long as Al-Qaeda is receiving funds from Pakistan, that came from the U.S. Hell NO! I wont hear of them being called allies when their people are killing our soldiers! Let see how the Pakistan plays out with they're new money-laundering widower president.

cstever said...

I think that the Palestinian government says that they are our ally to stay in a strong position against their bordering states, but I do not think that they are our friends when it comes to the crisis in the Middle East. Many of the Palestinian people have been helpers for the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, and won't stop now just because America has asked them to. Some politicians have tried to enforce this position, but not at all hard enough. There is also a large amount who still want to help the terrorist groups. Though the U.S feels that it needs to depend on Pakistan, I think that there feelings towards the Taliban are still greater than there want to help us out. For the most part that is.

Anonymous said...

I do not think that Pakistan is an ally with the United States. The United States gives Pakistan money and they give the money to Al-Qaeda. They won't allow the United States to set up camps or road blocks/patrols to sustain Al-Qaeda from traveling between Pakistan to Afghanistan. The Pakistani government is unreliable and lies about the situation at hand. They claim they are using the money the United States provides to stop Al-Qaeda and the Taliban but instead are just giving the money to them and in turn they kill American civilians and soldiers.

jtravis said...

i think that the United States and Pakistan are not allies. just because you give a country millions and millions of dollars so they can "be on your side" for the war on terror does not make that country your ally, especially when they are giving money may it be indirectly or directly to Al-Qaeda. i think that we would like to be allies with Pakistan, and the governments of both countries would like to believe they are, but in the middle ease there is such animosity towards the west, it seems this can never really happen. the government may be our ally, but the people? i really don't think so, and for that matter the government has done some very untrustworthy things, and quite frankly if we cannot trust them because of their actions, we really shouldn't be funding them or believing in them as an ally in the war on terror.

jmarker said...

I believe that Pakistan is only an ally to the US when it is most convenient to them. When considering the war on terror Pakistan says that they are an ally of the US. Only part of that is true. They are an ally when it benefits them more, like when the US is not sending attacks to Pakistani land. Pakistan will not stand for such attacks and call the US against them. Also not all of the Pakistani government is in this situation. Part of Pakistan's inteligence agency is sympathetic to the very groups that the US is against. They try to counteract against the US to protect these groups. Even if the rest of the government wanted to stop these members of the inteligence agency there is not much they can do, the government is not strong enough. With the government contradicting itself, it allows Al-Qaeda to run around its border while still calling itself an ally to the US.

Bri Hand said...

I do not believe that Pakistan is a true ally of the United States. There are times when it acts in the interests of America, but all in all, Pakistan is not dependable enough for the United States to rely on in their time of need. Pakistan is too closely associated and tied with the jihad that America is trying to fight, and Pakistani sympathizers pose a threat to Americans. We cannot be truly allied with a country who sympathizes with our enemies, the Islamic Jihadists because should it come down to a point where each side needs Pakistan’s help, where will Pakistan turn? If America isn’t 100% sure that Pakistan would side with them, then there is no trust between the countries. Pakistan also disagrees with some of the things the USA is doing and in some cases even hinders America’s ability to capture Bin Laden. More than once, Pakistan has killed a bomber before America could ask them questions. As put by Gen. Mark Milley, “Every country operates in its own self interest”. I’m just not sure that Pakistan is the country that would work in America’s best interest if it was given an ultimatum. If Pakistan was truly an ally of the United States, then they would do all that was possible to help the US try and eliminate Al Qaeda instead of indirectly helping the terrorists. However, I do not think that the US should become on bad terms with Pakistan, just that Pakistan cannot be trusted with US support.

swest said...

hmm...thats easy, hell no! pakistan doesn't even seem like they want anything to do with us. the only reason i think they don't completely lash at us is because we fund them to help us fight terror, but what do they do? they pay off al-qaeda so they don't attack them and then al-qaeda turns around to buy weapons to hurt our soldiers, its an awful full circle cycle =[

Anonymous said...
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aross said...

I don't think that Packistan is an ally towards the United States. I say this because even though we fund them A LOT of money they are still giving some of the money to Al-Qaeda, who is against us. Al-Qaeda is using this money to buy all sorts of weapons that they will use against the US (which we don't need to have happen). The one thing that we dont want to have happen is that Al-Qaeda and Pakistan to become allies because that means that Al-Qaeda is closer to Pakistan's nuclear power which we DON'T want to have happen. If they do get ahold of it then the US is in big trouble! Even though it was good to have Pakistan as an ally, it is now a bad thing. The US has finally realized that the Musharraf Government is now deciding on the needs of the US and the "Shadow ISI." I think that it is ok to have Pakistan as an ally for a little while, but the US has to keep a close eye on them because they could change their mind really quick and we need to be ready to pull out fast!

svan Loon said...

Contrary to how it seems, Pakistan isn't an ally with the United States. Pakistan funds the Taliban and Al Queda and they realize that once we dismantle these terror groups, we will more than likely not need them any longer as an ally. They would rather keep giving us a reason to be their ally than help us reach our true goal; eliminating the terror groups. Pakistan hinders our operations in Pakistan while still pretending to be our ally. They are not a US ally, they want to be an ally, but only because we are funding them and they do not want to lose their flow of money.

blofrano said...

In the War on Terror, Pakistan is a vital ally to the United States. The long-term relationship is exemplified by US aid to Pakistan, including security assistance, increased trade and investment, and the strengthening of educational programs. The alliance is based on the common goal of promoting democracy and prosperity through peace not only in South Asia, but also across the globe. This strategic partnership is illustrated by the two countries working together on a variety of issues concerning mutual interests. But now many Americans perceive the tie between Pakistan and the US as a fine line between what the relationship is and what it should be. Many articles suggest that Pakistan only appears to be an ally to the US, but in actuality is indirectly funding the Taliban and Al-Qaeda by supplying them with weapons and supporting their militant forces. Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), as well as factions within the Pakistan army, while helping the U.S. track Al-Qaeda with one hand, has been aiding these militias with the other, both inside Afghanistan and across the Pakistani border in Tribal areas. Through Pakistani help, the Taliban has made a firm comeback, causing American and Afghan casualties to be higher than ever since the war began. So the question of whether Pakistan is truly an ally to the US remains, and, in addition to the War on Terror, where religion controls the actions of these extremist regimes, is far too complex to resolve.

borger09 said...

Pakistan is not our ally. It is pretty easy to see that. We would like to think that they are on our side so we give them millions of dollars to help them out. But the problem with that is they then use that money to support Al-Qaeda. They can not be an ally and support a group that is our enemy. They are supporting them and keeping Al-Qaeda safe so we can't fight them and find Bin Laden. Pakistan is very smart, knowing the US will fund them until Bin Laden is found. Meaning they are not going to actively try to find him, but they will continue to take our money and give it to Al-Qaeda. Easily said they are not our allies in any way.

ethorne said...

I think Pakistan is not our ally because they have not truly helped us in any way. They take our money and indirectly fund the terrorist organizations that we are fighting. They also support the killing of American soldiers. Although they are officialy our ally, they do not act like it. Even though Al-Qaeda is hiding out in the northern part of the country, they will not go after them and they leave the US to it.

jandrews said...

I feel as pakistan is not an ally to the us because we have funded them money over the years and they have used our weapons agianst us. Also they support al-queda and they were involved in the attacks on the us on 9/11 that just shows that they are not allys of ours. If they really would like to be allys with us they need to directly stop all of there funds to al-queda.

Anonymous said...

I feel as pakistan is not an ally to the us because we have funded them money over the years and they have used our weapons agianst us. Also they support al-queda and they were involved in the attacks on the us on 9/11 that just shows that they are not allys of ours. If they really would like to be allys with us they need to directly stop all of there funds to al-queda.

pdowning said...

I don't think that Pakistan could be classified as an ally exactly maybe it would be better classified as a resourse we more or less just use them to get what we want done and throw money at them which they use for things that we don't approve of. So i guess it could be classified as a love hate relationship because we love that we can use their country as a base in the middle east but we hate that they give our money to people that want to kill us.