Crippled, Chaotic Pakistan

For years, Pakistan has ignored the Obama administration’s pleas to crack down on militants who cross from Pakistan to attack American forces in Afghanistan. Recent cross-border raids by Taliban militants who kill Pakistani soldiers should give Islamabad a reason to take that complaint more seriously.

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Last week, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Pakistan’s army chief of staff, raised the issue in a meeting with Gen. John Allen, the commander of American and NATO forces in Afghanistan. He demanded that NATO go after the militants on the Afghan side of the border, according to Pakistani news reports. General Allen demanded that Pakistan act against Afghan militants given safe haven by its security services, especially the Haqqani network, which is responsible for some of the worst attacks in Kabul.       

Fighting extremists should be grounds for common cause, but there is no sign that Pakistan’s military leaders get it. They see the need to confront the virulent Afghan-based insurgency that threatens their own country and has killed thousands of Pakistani soldiers and civilians. But they refuse to cut ties with the Haqqanis and other militants, who give Islamabad leverage in Afghanistan and are the biggest threat to American efforts to stabilize that country.       

Pakistan’s political system is growing ever more dysfunctional, even as the need to take on the border chaos becomes more urgent. Obama administration officials are “reaching the limits of our patience,” Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said recently. But the United States cannot just walk away. It needs Pakistan’s help in reopening a critical supply route to Afghanistan and in urging the Taliban to engage in peace talks so that combat troops can be withdrawn from Afghanistan by the end of 2014. It also needs to monitor Islamabad’s growing nuclear arsenal.       

Some in Congress want to designate the Haqqanis as a terrorist organization. That would be unwise because such a move could lead to Pakistan’s being designated a terrorist state subject to sanctions and make cooperation even harder. The United States has no choice but to try to work with Pakistan, including the army, when it can.       

Officials hope the crisis in relations caused by the killing of Osama bin Laden and other events will pass. Meanwhile, they are holding the Pakistanis more at arm’s length and setting narrower goals; President Obama declined to hold an official meeting with President Asif Ali Zardari at the NATO summit meeting in Chicago in May.       

The United States has little choice but to continue drone attacks on militants in Pakistan. It has urged India to become more involved in Afghanistan and on Thursday, a conference was held in New Delhi to urge companies to invest there. That makes sense as long as India’s activities are transparent. Pakistan is paranoid about India, which it sees as a mortal adversary.