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Is An Ally Really A Friend If They Don't Help?

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 14, 2008

Word is spreading that Pakistan is preparing to stop helping the United States in its war on terror. That's because U.S. troops have attacked targets in the country's remote, lawless regions in an attempt to take out Taliban leaders and Al Qaeda who continue to attack into Afghanistan. Suffice it to say that it is troublesome when an ally threatens to quit being a friend, but it must not stop America from attacking our enemies wherever we find them, and where there is no meaningful support to stop the bad guys by foreign governments who are supposed to be helping us.

Recent raids into Pakistan's remote regions along the Afghanistan border have angered the Pakistan government and many of the country's people. They don't want a foreign presence conducting military operations in their country. That's understandable because we wouldn't want a foreign military operating in our country.

The United States has tried to live by their rules, with the promise that the Pakistani military would take care of the Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives who slip across the border and kill innocent civilians as well as U.S. forces.

At some point, U.S. military leaders said enough is enough, and took on the task themselves with limited attacks using special forces and unmanned aircraft capable of firing missiles. The Pakistani government has claimed that innocent civilians have died as a result of these attacks, and they are probably right about that. It's also most likely true that our attacks have taken out exactly who and what we were trying to hit.

Most of us understand that our country undermined itself with much of the world by invading Iraq instead of continuing the fight in Afghanistan. We deserve criticism for some of it, but we also must always reserve the right to attack enemies when it's clear no one else will take up the fight. We have the right to do that, according to the United Nations.

We're protecting ourselves, of course, but we're also trying to protect a fragile Afghanistan from the terrorists who tortured civilians, prevented women and girls from being a part of their own society and repressing the Afghanistan people in unthinkable ways. We're fighting the good fight in Afghanistan, and the world knows it - even if they might not admit it.

We want Pakistan as our ally. The country can provide us intelligence opportunities on the war on terror that are impossible otherwise. But that cooperation can only go so far. When our troops and the international alliance are continually attacked by Taliban fighters and terrorist insurgents, we must act. If that means angering our ally, then that's what we must do.

Diplomats can work to make our case to the Pakistanis, but we cannot let murderers who want to slaughter innocent people, as well as return Afghanistan to a terrorist state, win the day. If that angers our ally, then so be it.

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