The Secretary in Pakistan

The Secretary of State Mrs. Clinton went to the most troublesome place in the world (Pakistan) to see if she can bridge the trust gap between the two distrusting nations. She did a little bit by offering $500 million in investments in its power and water sector. But the trust deficit is as huge as the budget deficit of the U.S. Why because of some part on the United States regarding how it abandoned that area after the Afghan war of the eighties and also in part due to unrealistic expectations on the Pakistani side. Also different and competing interests in the region also have breed suspicions on both sides.

On the United States side, it wants to make sure that Pakistan fights militants and Taliban so that there are minimal risks to the security of the United States. Furthermore, it wants to make sure that Afghanistan is never used as a basis of a terror state breeding and harboring terrorists. I don’t believe it is so much to ask from Pakistan (which is getting billions of dollars in aid each year). The U.S. has still some suspicion regarding sympathies inside the security agencies of Pakistan for Taliban and the like.

Now let us look at the Pakistan Side. Pakistan to be fair is fighting a war in its own country against the local militants and Taliban and has lost over 2000 soldiers and countless civilians. Its economy is almost near collapse due to what it perceives as the cost of waging war in its own country.