Did you ever have a best friend, who you trusted, and claimed to "have your back", but then helped out your enemy to do something bad towards you? Unfortunately, this may have happened to the majority of us, including the United States. The United States is allies with Pakistan, in which the United States agrees to send $1 billion annually to this country, and in return Pakistan agrees to take action against al-Qaida and Taliban forces that are located in their country. This appears that both sides have a fair share on what they are supposed to provide in this friendship and both have mutual benefits. Pakistan, according to the U.S., has been an unreliable ally because this country, "keeps evadings its responsibilities in taking military action against Taliban and al-Qaida forces in North Waziristan." (New Haven Register) In the article, "Pakistan, U.S. need alliance" by Kui B. Rai in The New Haven Register, it discussed how because of Pakistan's unreliability, both the United States and NATO attacked Pakistan, which in turn enraged the Pakistani public and makes the U.S. even more unpopular. Pakistan claims that they are not willing to fight the Taliban because they "want to recover its influence in that country and is concerned about Taliban attacks within Pakistan" (New Haven Register) Pakistan therefore cooperates with the United States and NATO in the war against the Taliban to what it considers an acceptable extent.
The United States considers Pakistan a necessary ally because their friendship has become crucial in fighting terrorists, so the U.S. continues to support this nation. Both countries realize that without the other country, they would be lacking vital components to continue their countries. In my opinion, I think that the United States is giving 60% in this relationship whereas Pakistan is givign 40%. A functioning relationship needs to be 50-50 from both ends of each party because it shows that both are giving and receiving equally. The United States is providing a huge amount of funds towards Pakistan for their cooperation as well as funding to Pakistan's army, and Pakistan in return is only providing some action being taken against the Taliban and Al-Qaida, almost as if they take action when they feel like it. I think there needs to be stricter guidelines that are more specific, developed by the United States, to state what they expect from Pakistan. Pakistan can hear these guidelines and tailor them to a certain extent that is agreeable between both parties, which can then result with having more precise solutions on what to do if faced with when deciding to take actions against the Taliban.
Communication is key in any relationship, especially when dealing with a friendship in which you must provide for your friend and take into consideration how your actions are going to benefit/harm them. Right now I think Pakistani's are not viewing the United States as being fair and just in their actions of attack, and so this is going to damage the relationship from Pakistans end. Americans, feel that Pakistan is not keeping their end of the bargain and so they feel that they are untrustworthy and unreliable, so this too is damaging the relationship from the United States' part. Both sides have ill feelings towards the other and so it is necessary for both sides to communicate and listen to each other to understand the feelings of the other party. In our class book of Babbie, we learned about survey research, and this may provide to be a useful tool to get a better understanding of both countries, by surveying Americans and Pakistanis with questions, open-ended, closed-ended, and agree/disagree. This survey research is, "a popular social research method, and is the administration of questionnaires to a sample of resondents selected from some population." (Babbie 309) This survey can hopefully be a guide to the opinion of the larger population and provide a representation of feelings generated from each country, which can then be looked at, and then a solution can be reached in order to better the friendship/relationship between Pakistan and the United States.
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