U.S.-Pakistan Relations: Is the rocky alliance worth saving?

PAKISTAN; UNITED States

On May 2, U.S. Navy Seals raided a house in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and killed Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the September 2001 terror attacks. While Americans hailed the Al Qaeda leader's death, some Pakistanis and Americans, including members of Congress, saw it as yet another betrayal in the rocky alliance between the two nations. Pakistanis considered the U.S. raid as a clear violation of their country's sovereignty; Americans say that bin Laden's ability to take refuge in a major Pakistani city — perhaps for as long as five years — reflected the country's duplicity. Some in Congress have called for ending aid to Pakistan — nearly $5 billion in fiscal 2010 — on the grounds that Pakistan has undermined the U.S. fight against terrorism. But others warn that halting aid could push nuclear-armed Pakistan further into chaos, thus opening a power vacuum that militants could fill. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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