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  • The United States and Pakistan are, ostensibly, allied countries.

  • The US is Pakistan’s largest trading partner, accounting for a quarter of Pakistan’s exports.

  • And the two have worked closely together on counterterrorism efforts for the past decade

  • and a half.

  • Yet, events like the secretive capture of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011 have cast

  • doubt onto the closeness or trustworthiness of their relationship.

  • When polled, Pakistanis and Americans rank each other among their least favored countries.

  • So are the United States and Pakistan really allies?

  • Well, from the birth of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan as an independent country in 1947,

  • the United States has held diplomatic relations with, and supported the new Muslim nation.

  • In fact, Pakistan was specifically created as a home for Muslims in the region when it

  • was split off from India.

  • Since this was around the time of the Cold War, and India was aligned with the Soviet

  • Union, the United States saw an opportunity for an ally in the region to guard against

  • communism.

  • The two countries soon developed favorable relations.

  • The US also formed similar relations with Egypt, Israel, and Saudi Arabia over the next

  • few decades.

  • The early alliances scared the USSR.

  • In 1979, one of the Soviet Union’s last allies, Afghanistan, was on the verge of collapse

  • from internal instability.

  • Fearing that the country would align with the US, as the rest of the region had done,

  • Russia chose to invade Afghanistan to maintain their foothold.

  • The resulting Soviet-Afghan War was one of the US and Pakistan’s biggest collaborations.

  • In what was the longest and most extensive covert operation in CIA history, the US government

  • used Pakistani intelligence services to distribute funds and weapons to the Muslim Afghan mujahedeen

  • fighters against the Soviets.

  • After the Soviets retreated in 1989, a number of these US-Pakistan-backed fighters went

  • on to form insurgency groups in the region, including Osama bin Laden of al-Qaeda and

  • Mohammed Omar of the Taliban.

  • But soon after the end of the war, Pakistan developed their first nuclear weapons program

  • against the US warning not to do so.

  • In 1990, the US imposed heavy sanctions on Pakistan in thePressler amendment”,

  • ending most military and economic assistance to the country unless they ended their nuclear

  • program.

  • For the next decade, the two would not be considered close allies.

  • But with the attacks of September 11th, and the US’s almost immediate invasion of Afghanistan,

  • neighboring Pakistan again proved to be a necessary ally.

  • Pakistan had long supported the mujahideen-founded Taliban government, which they themselves

  • had inadvertently created during the Soviet war.

  • But pressure from the United States forced Pakistan to quickly reverse course, and allow

  • the US to use their military bases for the invasion against the Taliban.

  • However, despite this collaboration in the War on Terror, Pakistan has not been viewed

  • by the US as a trustworthy ally.

  • In 2008, the director of the NSA accused Pakistani intelligence of deliberately feeding information

  • about incoming American attacks to the very jihadists they were trying to fight.

  • In 2011, the secret capture and death of Osama bin Laden, just miles from a Pakistani military

  • base, heavily strained relations between the two countries.

  • Pakistan has been repeatedly accused of harboring terrorists by US officials, and even by the

  • country’s own former ambassador to the US.

  • Additionally, numerous controversial drone strikes since 2004 by the US on the Afghan-Pakistan

  • border have killed a large number of civilians, souring relations further.

  • Although the two have been friendly throughout their allied history, and have never seen

  • direct aggression against each other, it is more than clear that the US and Pakistan are

  • allied out of necessity.

  • On the other hand, India and Pakistan have a history of territorial, cultural and religious

  • aggression.

  • Yet, the two countries were once one country, so why do they hate each other so much?

  • Thanks for watching Seeker Daily, don’t forget to like and subscribe for new videos

  • every day.

The United States and Pakistan are, ostensibly, allied countries.

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美國和巴基斯坦真的是盟友嗎? (Are The U.S. and Pakistan Really Allies?)

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    gotony5614.me97 發佈於 2021 年 01 月 14 日
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