WASHINGTON -- The United States has assembled a dubious collection of allies over the years. Washington long has had to emphasize the vices of its adversaries rather than the virtues of its friends. Instead of tying itself to morally putrefying regimes through aid programs and military alliances, the U.S. should promote both short-term stability and long-term reform through private trade and investment.
Pakistan, now teetering on the brink of war with India, is a particularly questionable friend. A military dictatorship arising from an ineffective and unpopular democracy, Islamabad was a U.S. ally during the Cold War.
After Moscow's invasion of Afghanistan, Pakistan became the conduit for American aid to the resistance movement, funneling money to the most radical elements of the Mujahedin, including Osama bin Laden. Years of civil war followed the Soviet retreat, until the Taliban's triumph in 1996. Islamabad was one of only three governments to recognize the new regime. So tight were the connections between Pakistan and Kabul that Gen. Pervez Musharraf had to purge his own Inter-Services Intelligence agency when he decided to support the U.S. Even now it is not always clear on which side his government leans: During the conflict Islamabad apparently airlifted out of Afghanistan Pakistani nationals serving with the Taliban.